Joan Laporta reveals Caso Negreira documents at press conference
The Barcelona president was on the offensive, claiming that he has proof that the club only paid for scouting reports.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta held a Monday morning press conference at Camp Nou in a bid to address the scandal concerning payments made to Enriquez Negreira, former vice president of the Spanish referees’ federation.
Laporta sought to dismiss claims that the club had acted improperly. Barcelona have confirmed that payments totalling €7.3 million were made to Negreira’s company.
The Barça chief said that the money was paid in return for reports on match officials across an 18-year period.
“We received 629 reports from Negreira along with 43 CDs, along with other briefings,” Laporta revealed on Monday.
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Laporta also claimed that he could prove that the payments were not an attempt to gain favourable decisions during matches.
“I have documentation that show that there have never been any payments that directly attempt to sway results in sporting competitions”.
However the act of paying a substantial sum of money to a key official still raises questions. Negreira was in the role for the duration of the payments and the payments stopped soon after he left the position within the referees’ federation.
Laporta quizzed on the content of reports
The initial ‘Caso Negreira’ investigation was launched by the Spanish tax office who queried the valuation of the services rendered by Negreira’s company. During Monday’s press conference, Laporta was asked about the nature of the reports.
“Well, it’s basically technical stuff,” Laporta replied. “Talks about the profile of the referee, what games the ref in question had overseen.... what was their manner of officiating ...very detailed briefings with CD’s adding more details. Very detailed information.”
During the course of his presentation, Laporta also made reference to “four separate documents” not included in the number of refereeing reports.
“They were more focused on scouting,” Laporta said. “Profiles on other clubs. Back in those days, there was not the high level of data available on each player”.
The documents presented by Laporta at the press conference has not yet been verified publically. But even if they are consistent with his claims many will still see the payments as contentious.
Officials within the referees’ committee must be impartial and the receipt of millions of euros for additional responsibilities, which favoured a single club, raises questions about sporting integrity.