Laporta’s awkward silence

On February 15, after agreeing to the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office, v A chained being opened the housing screw Enriquez Negreira announcing the payment of at least €1.4 million, between 2016 and 2018, by Barcelona to the then vice-president of referees for advisory work. That day, before the magnitude of the alleged irregularities ended up pointing to Joan Laporta, the president of Barcelona expressed his only thoughts in this regard through the club’s official media. “I want to clarify. The news is surprising, it is no coincidence that it comes out now, when things are going well. Any tendentious interpretation that insinuates things that are not will have a proportionate and appropriate response,” said Laporta. In his short speech, in addition to the victim, the president wanted to normalize the payments that were reported and that the Tax Administration also opened an investigation.

“In the past, Barcelona engaged the services of an external consultant for the technical reports of players in the lower categories of the Spanish state. In addition, that same external consultant advised arbitration, which is very common in big clubs, Laporta said at the time, who did not comment further. At that first moment, the spotlight was focused primarily on Josep María Bartomeu, who was in charge of the club between 2016 and 2018, but as the hours passed, Laporta was identified as responsible for the quadrupling of the amount Enríquez Negreira received . Earth He revealed that Barcelona’s payments date back to 2001. Bartomeu confirmed that it was he who gave the order to terminate the agreement with the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Judges. “In 2018, the time of cuts began in order to clean up the club’s economy. That service cost a lot of money and it was decided to cancel it,” said the former president of the abc.

“I should explain that”

As another sequence of the internal war of the leader of Barca, Bartomeu fired at Laporta. “He quadrupled Negreira’s salary. I should explain it,” warned the former president. Despite the thrown arrow, the head of the club remains silent. Laporta was called by the press the day after the first information was published, which coincided with a lunch with the leaders of Manchester United, before the first game of the Europa League. “Championship atmosphere” was the only sentence uttered by the president, who did not want to answer media questions related to the Negreiro case. Laporta did not want to speak even on Sunday, when he went to the Camp Nou box with Cádiz president Manuel Vizcaín to follow the league game.

Laporta, who initially threatened to sue, not only singled out Bartomeu as being responsible for the increase in payments to Negreira in the 2009-10 season. from 145,758 euros to 573,398, he is also, as the current president, the only one who can order an internal investigation to determine what happened to the recurring payments to the arbitration officer.

The plot, which would span from 2001 to 2018, involves four boards of directors: Joan Gaspart, Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. Enríquez Negreira is under investigation for alleged tax offenses for not properly taxing the payments he received from Barcelona and for alleged corruption between individuals. So far, there is no evidence that this money was used to buy arbitration services, but the shadow of suspicion is long and Laporta continues without clarification. Negreira claimed the payments he received guaranteed Barcelona “neutral” treatment by the arbitration body.