Laporta: "The 'Caso Negreira' is not a crime of sports corruption"

   MADRID, 17 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of FC Barcelona, ​​Joan Laporta, insisted this Monday that the Barça club "has never carried out any action that had as its final objective or intention to alter the competition to achieve some type of sporting advantage", at the same time that he reiterated that the ' Negreira' case "is not a crime of sports corruption" and denounced the "public lynching" against the institution, for which reason he asked "institutions and the media" to respect the "principle of innocence".

"FC Barcelona has never carried out any action that had the final objective or intention of altering the competition to achieve some kind of sporting advantage. The 'Negreira case' is not a crime of sports corruption", Laporta reiterated during an appearance before the media of communication to give explanations for the 'Negreira case'.

The leader began his speech by denouncing a "giant international smear campaign" with "defamatory statements that have nothing to do with reality." "At Barça we want to win, and we really like how we win, playing well. We don't like to win with arbitration aid. It is obvious that we have detractors, who try to erode our prestige, sometimes out of envy, out of feeling and other times for reasons extra-sports," he said.

"They are not going to achieve it, no smear campaign will prevent Barça from continuing to be an institution or a reference club for world sport," he added.

Laporta reported that Barça has "professional advice" from a person with "a career in the refereeing establishment" who carried out his work "with clarity and transparency". "This advice existed and it is in the invoices, paid by bank transfer," he commented.

"There are natural persons from an entity external to the club, not Barça, who have taken advantage of the context to make a profit, we will defend the honor of the club, we are the first interested in making the issue known until the end. FC Barcelona He is a victim in this matter. In no case would Barça be responsible".

The Barça president appeared together with the 629 technical-refereeing reports, 43 CD's and 4 various reports that the external investigation analyzed, appealing to the "presumption of innocence that Barça has not had at the media level up to now". "He has been subjected to a conviction and lynching by the media without a trial. We are witnessing a Solomonic trial, it is intolerable and inexplicable," he lamented.

"LaLiga has had an unwise, irresponsible performance and an evident lack of professionalism. I ask Thebes to stop fueling this controversy. It is validating a hypothesis that is false", criticized the president of the employer's association, before thanking the "prudent action" Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF; José Manuel Franco, president of the CSD; and Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA.