Negreira case: "It will end in an acquittal" (Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona)

"The courts cannot prove that referees were paid, because that was not the case. I'm a lawyer and I'm sure that the case will end in an acquittal," said Joan Laporta, president of FC Barcelona (LALIGA EA Sports), on Catalunya Ràdio on 19/10/2023.

Joan Laporta's comments come the day after his indictment in connection with the "Negreira case", in which the Spanish Public Prosecutor's Office had already announced that it was prosecuting former Barcelona managers, including former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) and Sandro Rosell (2010-2014), for "sporting corruption, breach of trust and forgery" on 10/03/2023, before the case was handed over to the anti-corruption department of the Public Prosecutor's Office on 14/03/2023.

This procedure was motivated by payments made by the club - almost €7m between 2001 and 2018 - to the company DASNIL 95 SL, owned by José Maria Enríquez Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish Technical Arbitration Committee (CTA) at the time. The indictment of Barça's current president concerns his first spell in charge of the Catalan club…