FC Barcelona statement
In light of the information published today regarding the interlocutory decree from Court num. 1, FC Barcelona would like to remind of their appearance as a private plaintiff during the procedure opened for the so-called "Caso Negreira" matter in order to defend the institution regarding a potential crime of unlawful administration during the period under investigation.
This appearance could have been made at any time during the fact-finding hearing, but the Club preferred to do so from the outset to position itself regarding third party payments, given that the institution is convinced that a crime of sports corruption has not been committed.
Barça again state that they used technical services for years regarding advice about refereeing and players, and that material exists to certify this fact. All this material was use to improve preparations for professional football games, for which there are invoices pertaining to the payments made to the company providing those services, and any remaining material was recently submitted to the Court where the investigation is being carried out.
Under President Laporta's mandate, every payment was made to the only company responsible for this service and never to third party persons or companies.
Regretfully the edict issued yesterday contains opinions and value judgments that question President Laporta's ethics, when:
1) FC Barcelona appeared and is being investigated - not the current president
2) it is the Club exercising the right to defence in the procedure, and;
3) potentially, the Club could also be a damaged party.
It should also be remembered that the case is in the pre-trial phase and that the personal judgements stated in the edict have simply created more confusion among public opinion, and on being published, it has severely harmed the image of the Club and its president, albeit probably unwittingly.
In any case, the Club, led by its president, will continue to defend the institution's legitimate interests via its lawyers involved with the legal direction of this procedure.
Lastly, we again emphasise that in the Club's opinion, these actions against the management's governance are not by chance, as FC Barcelona continues to be subjected to external attacks as part of a campaign to stain the institution's name based on facts that still remain unfounded and which aims to destabilise the Club in every domain, whether sporting, financial or social.