"Here comes the victimism again..." put the music...
By @hugocarrasco92
Barcelona has once again published a statement in which it expresses its disagreement with the judge who is investigating the Negreira case. After the magistrate Joaquín Aguirre decided to prevent the club from appearing in the case, since he considers that the only reason why the current president, Joan Laporta, is not under investigation is because of the statute of limitations of the facts during his previous mandate. Barça have once again come forward and have tried to defend themselves by describing the judge's assessments as "personal judgements" and pointing out that they are "seriously prejudicial" to the club and the president. They also stress that they are "aware" that the crime they are accused of for sporting corruption is non-existent.
In this communiqué, which follows the information that has appeared in the last few hours, Barça has once again victimised itself. They point out that the club is immersed in "an institutional smear campaign" based on "facts that are still not accredited". They reveal that they are seeking to "destabilise" the club in "sporting, economic and social terms". In addition, they stick up for their president Laporta, pointing out that under his command "payments were always made to the company" in charge of the consultancy, never to individuals or third party companies.
Once again, Barcelona justifies the payment to the former number two of the referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, of more than seven million euros over 18 years. They claim that they were for "technical services of arbitration and players' advice" and that they have "material accrediting their existence". They claim that the services offered by Negreira and his son were aimed at "improving the preparation of matches for professional football teams", despite the fact that coaches such as Ernesto Valverde and Gerardo Martino have stated for the record that they were unaware of these alleged reports.
Barcelona speaks out on the 'Negreira case':
"As a result of the information published today about the interlocutory ruling of Court No. 1, FC Barcelona wishes to recall that it appeared as a private prosecutor in the proceedings opened by the well-known Cas Negreira for the purpose of defending the entity from a potential crime of unfair administration in the period under investigation.
This appearance could have been made at any time during the investigation of the case, but the Club preferred to do so from the outset in order to take a position on the payment to third parties, given the organisation's conviction that the offence of sporting corruption did not exist.
Barça states once again that for years it had technical services for refereeing and players' advice and has material accrediting their existence and reality. All this material aimed at improving the preparation of the matches of the professional football teams was satisfied in invoices paid to the company supplying the services and, the part of the material which has been preserved, has recently been handed over to the court in charge of the investigation.
Under the direction of president Laporta, payments were always made to the company which, at any given time, was in charge of this function, and never to third parties or third party companies.
We regret that the order notified yesterday contains opinions and value judgements calling into question the ethics of president Joan Laporta when:
- it is FC Barcelona -not its current president- who has appeared in the proceedings and is under investigation.
- it is the Club that has the right to defend itself in the proceedings
- in his case, the Club could also be an injured party.
It should also be remembered that the case is still in the investigation phase and that the personal judgements set out in the order have done nothing more than generate a state of confusion in public and published opinion which, without wishing to do so, has certainly caused serious damage to the image of the Club and its president.
In any case, the Club, with its president at the helm, will continue to defend the legitimate interests of the institution through the lawyers who are part of the legal management of these proceedings.
Finally, we emphasise once again that, in the Club's opinion, nothing that is shaking the governing action of the management team is accidental, stressing that FC Barcelona continues to be besieged externally by a campaign to discredit the institution based on facts that continue to be totally unaccredited and that aim to destabilise the Club in all areas: sporting, economic and social."