Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu insisted that there is no corruption or bribery to answer, after giving testimony in the ongoing Negreira case.
Barcelona were first accused of corruption in 2023 when it came to light that a company linked to José María Enríquez Negreira—former vice-president of Spanish soccer’s referees committee (CTA)—had been paid €7.5 million ($8.8 million) by the club over a 17-year period.
The suspicious payments stopped in 2018, the year that Negreira left the CTA.
Barcelona have acknowledged the payments, which spanned several presidencies, including that of Bartomeu, Sandro Rosell, and current chief Joan Laporta’s first spell in office from 2003–10. But there has always been an insistence that payments were made for consultancy services and information intended to complement the work of the club’s coaching staff.
After speaking in court this week, Bartomeu addressed reporters outside, claiming that many of the things he and Barcelona are accused of have been “disproved.”
Bartomeu stated: “Some of us who were involved in the club during these years, from 2013–18, have testified. It has become clear that many of the theories that have been floated have been disproved. Many issues have been clarified. Above all, it has been clarified that there were sports advisory services, referee reports, and pre and postmatch advisory services for both the first team and the reserve team, and that this advisory services had a financial compensation to pay.”
The former president, who was in charge when Barcelona’s finances imploded amid the COVID pandemic, further claimed there was never any payment made that would influence an individual referee.
“We don’t pay to influence: we pay for sports coverage,” he said. “It’s always been clear that some quarters have tried to tarnish the best Barça [team] in history. What is clear is that we've had great successes, we've had the best player in history [Lionel Messi], and we deserved to win.
“I say it again, and former president Rosell has also said it…we had the best team in the world and Barça has won on its own merits all the championships and titles we were successful in achieving.”
In 2023, the public prosecutor’s office claimed: “FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with José María Enríquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Many Issues’—Ex-Barcelona President Breaks Silence As Negreira Trial Begins.
