Barça "has never carried out any action with the ultimate objective or intention of modifying the competition in order to obtain any sporting advantage," Laporta told reporters at the Catalan club's headquarters.
"I invite you to tell me what goal, what match, what suspicious action" could have been the result of a fixing attempt and "when there was a refereeing advantage" for the benefit of FC Barcelona, insisted the president of the Blaugrana club, offensive in the face of accusations against Barça.
FC Barcelona has been in turmoil since the revelation in early February by Spanish media of suspicious payments of money made to companies owned by the former N.2 of the Spanish refereeing, José Maria Enriquez Negreira.
These revelations led the Spanish justice to indict mid-March the Catalan club and its former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) and Sandro Rosell (2010-2014) for "corruption between individuals in the sports sector", "breach of trust" and "forgery of commercial documents".
According to the prosecutor's office, the Catalan club paid Mr Negreira more than €7.3 million between 2001 and 2018, in exchange for advice on arbitration matters – payments that were allegedly interrupted when Mr Negreira stepped down from his position on Spain's Technical Arbitration Committee (CTA).
Barça "concluded and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement" with Negreira "so that in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA and in exchange for money, he carries out actions tending to favor" the club and therefore "the results of the competitions", assured the prosecutor's office in a court document.
"Reputation"
Accusations rejected Monday by Joan Laporta, for whom FC Barcelona, despite these contracts, has never been in "capacity to appoint referees and therefore to alter the sporting results" of the Catalan club, victim according to him of a "smear campaign".
FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta at a press conference, April 17, 2023 © LLUIS GENE / AFP
According to the president of Barça, the Spanish tax authorities themselves stressed, in a report sent to the courts, that they had not "been able to demonstrate that the payments made to companies" of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira "could have influenced the referees or the result of any match".
"They could not demonstrate it because it was not possible," Laporta insisted, assuring that the services for which the club had made payments were legal and documented.
The president of FC Barcelona said he was relying on the conclusions of an internal investigation, entrusted to KPMG, according to which "no act of a criminal nature and related to the crime of sports corruption has been identified".
According to the report, payments were made for "sports advisory services, recruitment and refereeing advice, which are common in professional sport," and depended on the number of competitions that were analyzed, Laporta added.
"There was no crime of corruption," he insisted, without excluding that people outside the club could have taken advantage of this situation "to have irregular behavior", but "for their benefit" and not that of the club.
Denouncing an "orchestrated campaign to destroy the reputation of FC Barcelona", Laporta said he had initiated proceedings "against those who have damaged the club's honour", openly criticizing Real Madrid and LaLiga president Javier Tebas, who has repeatedly asked for explanations on the case.
"I would like the president of LaLiga to contain this verbal incontinence," Laporta said, adding that he was convinced that Barça would not be sanctioned by UEFA, which has opened an investigation into a "possible violation of the legal framework" by the Catalan club.
"I am convinced that this will not happen, it would be an unprecedented event and with a club of the level of FC Barcelona," he said, ruling out any risk for his club to be excluded from the Champions League.
© 2023 AFP