The scenery had to be important, because Joan Laporta had to explain why Barcelona paid 7.5 million euros over 17 years to the former number two of the referees, José María Enríquez Negreira. The Barça leader did more or less what he always did: he denounced a "media lynching", harshly attacked the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, and against Real Madrid – "I trust that in the trial they will put them in their place" – said that there are spheres of power that do not support "the Catalanism" of Barça, and denied that the club had sought a favorable arbitration treatment: "It's a false hypothesis."

Although, this time, Laporta tried to go further. So the Compliance Officer of the club, Sergi Atienza, took out with other lawyers four boxes containing 629 reports and 43 CDs made by Javier Enríquez, son of the former referee ("he was the main provider of services"). There was no trace of reports from the father, nor from the first presidential stage of the president (2003-2010). "Because reports expire and are destroyed." They were placed next to the president's pulpit and the president set off.

"According to the accredited facts, no conduct with criminal relevance linked to crimes of sports corruption has been identified, there is no indication of affecting the fair play of the competition nor are criteria given to study criminal modalities linked to bribery," said Laporta reading the investigation that Andreu Van den Eynde had prepared for him, former lawyer of Oriol Junqueras (ERC) in the trial of the procés.

"As for the provision made by the companies and individuals investigated, these are sports advisory services (scouting and arbitration advice) that are common in the professional sports sector," continued Laporta, who described them as "important" despite coaches such as Ernesto Valverde ensuring that they had never seen them. And he added: "There is evidence of the provision of services, their approval and evaluation according to criteria of the sports area. There is official documentation of invoices and payments, subject to documented approval and receipt of the benefit."

Given the increase in payments made to Negreira during his mandate, accredited in the KPMG Audit as published by this newspaper, Laporta excused it as follows: "The amount of the invoices is variable depending on the number of competitions that were analyzed. The consideration could have been agreed annually and invoiced on a monthly basis with variations due to additional services such as international competitions. For example, recordings of the Spanish team in the Confederations Cup in Brazil or the U-21 team.

"Barcelona has not committed any crime. The Negreira case is not a crime of sports corruption. Some services were provided- They are documented, there were some invoices. Some payments via bank transfer and registered, and had passed relevant tax reviews. It is clear that with the existence of these services there was no crime of sports corruption," Laporta insisted.

And he returned to his own: "Nothing is casual. This campaign comes when Barça came out of the tunnel. We have saved Barça financially. We found that we competed well... We are first in the League. And I see a clear reason for destabilizing us. Not only that. This campaign explodes coincidentally when FCB has not signed the protection of the prisdernte of the League queira with the CVC fund. We do not bow to their interests. It's not by chance this."

  • Articles Francisco Cabezas
  • football
  • Negreira Case

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