Joan Laporta: "Barcelona never bought referees nor did they have that intention"

The Negreira case continues to rumble in Barcelona. While the investigation continues and there is even speculation that both the club and the former president Josep María Bartomeu will be denounced, was Joan Laportacurrent head honcho of the Catalan institution, who denied any type of corruption linked to the referees.

It has to do, of course, with the investigation carried out by the Spanish Tax Agency that involves the former Spanish arbitrator Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira with alleged payments received from Barsa. The suspicions arose from irregularities in the taxation of the years 2016, 2017 and 2018,

Laporta, in defense of the club and promising a special press conference on the case, denied the facts: “Barsa has never bought referees and Barsa has never had the intention of buying referees. Absolutely never. The forcefulness of the facts contradicts those who try to change the story. We are going well again, nothing is casual. There is a campaign to harm the interests of Barca. It is a campaign aimed at controlling the club.”

“Barça has not dedicated itself to buying referees. Barça will not be harmed. I knew Negreira a little”, added the president of Barcelona.

Taking advantage of his presence in a colloquium at the Círculo Ecuestre de Barcelona, ​​Laporta continued: “Lately, only negative news from Barcelona has come out. Now they don’t like who we have hired for the Camp Nou works… I would say it has to do with the Super League “.

Finally, he said that he met Lionel Messi’s father: “We’ve seen each other, yes. We’ve talked about the situation. I congratulated him on the World Cup. We’ve talked about the tribute to Leo. I want to respect PSG. I don’t want to talk about a possible return out of respect for the player and PSG.”