Negreira case: "Barça never did anything to gain any kind of sporting advantage" (J. Laporta)

"I am utterly convinced that FC Barcelona (LaLiga Santander) never did anything with the intention or purpose of adulterating the competition in order to gain any kind of sporting advantage," said Joan Laporta, president of the Catalan club, on 17/04/2023.

"Maintaining relations on technical and refereeing matters with companies that employ people with experience in the football industry and a long history working with referees is under no circumstances an illegal activity and less so a crime. Professional counselling is a common practice among all big football clubs and at Barça the practice is clear and transparent, with all the invoices broken down by items. There was never any intention to hide anything. If that had happened, the club would have been the first to act in defence of the club's honour," added Laporta, upon the presentation of the results of the "Preliminary Compliance Report" verifying the legality of the club's activities, gathered in the form of "629 technical-refereeing reports, 43 CDs and 4 miscellaneous reports."

The statement comes in the context of the…