The Negreira case

Porque

Senior Member
Serghei has a point. They must provide proof that the payments were bribes, and not just allege so.

One thing you would expect is that somewhere in the sports law that sports clubs or institutions are not allowed to engage 3rd party deals by companies owned by players or referee's because of conflict of interest.

But I guess no such thing exists in Spain considering Gerard Pique company brokered the Copa Del Rey deal which ended up paying Barcelona (his club at the time) more than half of the other teams. But atleast there was proof of services received, though, still you can see there is a conflict here.

Anyways, with no basic statute's saying x can not contract y because of z, then there still needs to be proof- even if it quacks and does look like a duck.

Without it, we're no different than a professional gambler owning Brighton or a betting company owning Brentford.

The other question is how does this issue even initiate. You can watch a Madrid game for yeeeeaaars and see something is not quite right, or the pre and post VAR cases for Madrid after Florentino's public intervention. Or the call versus Atleti that won them the league in the final fixture to win the league in 2014.

You can see that refeering has been dodgy as shit in Spain for years, that this is not an isolated situation. But just like Conor Benn, we we're stupid enough to get caught.
 
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DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Unless a couple or more actual referees flips and admits to favoring Barca under his instructions or being approached by him on the subject the prosecution won't be able to prove much here.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Unless a couple or more actual referees flips and admits to favoring Barca under his instructions or being approached by him on the subject the prosecution won't be able to prove much here.

Doubt there's any because I watched all the games and those guys must be smoking pot if they think we got some benefits from refs.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Reason we got caught in this mess is because the club have no proper control/auditing.

Laporta is never going to install a rigorous, external auditing/financial control unit in the club either because then he wouldn't be able to hire his family members and offer other favors that might be completely dodgy too.

Just a question of time before someone like Bartomeu is elected again in the future as no Barcelona President want to do what's necessary for the long-term stability of the club. They'll do what they want in their term and move on.
 

ajnotkeith

Senior Member
Serghei has a point. They must provide proof that the payments were bribes, and not just allege so.

One thing you would expect is that somewhere in the sports law that sports clubs or institutions are not allowed to engage 3rd party deals by companies owned by players or referee's because of conflict of interest.

But I guess no such thing exists in Spain considering Gerard Pique company brokered the Copa Del Rey deal which ended up paying Barcelona (his club at the time) more than half of the other teams. But atleast there was proof of services received, though, still you can see there is a conflict here.

Anyways, with no basic statute's saying x can not contract y because of z, then there still needs to be proof- even if it quacks and does look like a duck.

Without it, we're no different than a professional gambler owning Brighton or a betting company owning Brentford.

The other question is how does this issue even initiate. You can watch a Madrid game for yeeeeaaars and see something is not quite right, or the pre and post VAR cases for Madrid after Florentino's public intervention. Or the call versus Atleti that won them the league in the final fixture to win the league in 2014.

You can see that refeering has been dodgy as shit in Spain for years, that this is not an isolated situation. But just like Conor Benn, we we're stupid enough to get caught.
There is enough proof to suggest that there were no real services actually rendered. Paying an active ref in an important leadership position millions under the table is absolutely corruption.

Valverde already stated that his team didn't receive any reports from this guy when he was in charge, and if the manager isn't seeing these reports then who is? The answer is they never existed.

Additionally, they state multiple payments invoiced to Barca had no description even attached to them and were there simply as transfers.

Sorry but I don't buy it and doubt many other people will either. Millions for video analysis under the table, to an active VP of ref committee, that nobody can account for actually receiving, and that conveniently stopped when this guy lost his position.
 

Porque

Senior Member
There is enough proof to suggest that there were no real services actually rendered. Paying an active ref in an important leadership position millions under the table is absolutely corruption.

Valverde already stated that his team didn't receive any reports from this guy when he was in charge, and if the manager isn't seeing these reports then who is? The answer is they never existed.

Additionally, they state multiple payments invoiced to Barca had no description even attached to them and were there simply as transfers.

Sorry but I don't buy it and doubt many other people will either. Millions for video analysis under the table, to an active VP of ref committee, that nobody can account for actually receiving, and that conveniently stopped when this guy lost his position.

BUT THESE ARE THE GUYS WHO SPENT 160 MILLION ON COUTINHO !!!

And it was started by this guy!

gaspart-celebrate.gif


That's him, celebrating 4th place in the league.

There's my proof :lol:
 

Mitchell1978

Senior Member
Come on... that's not credible at all. The guy is grumpy the club is not paying him anymore, he has all the interest in the world to throw dirt at the club. Guy is a conman.

Hasn't the guy said he has beginning Alzheimer and therefore can no langer testify.
 

Givenchy

Senior Member
This club is an embarrassment on and off the pitch but even with some of the shady characters involved and the scandals.. I find it hard to believe we bought refs. We've had so many decisions go against us and if we are pointing to Barca vs the minnows, bigger teams usually always get the calls. IF and that is a huge IF, they did, the fucking retards did a shit job of that also :clown:

Most likely we get a fine (crippling us even more financially) and docked points. Anything more and they shoot themselves in the foot by creating Bayernsliga the Madrid version. The league viewing figures and quality is already plummeting, Tebas will know this.
 
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Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
Come on... that's not credible at all. The guy is grumpy the club is not paying him anymore, he has all the interest in the world to throw dirt at the club. Guy is a conman.

That doesn't matter. What matters is and what is being investigated is why we paid him 7.3m all these years.
 

Luftstalag14

Culé de Celestial Empire
Serghei has a point. They must provide proof that the payments were bribes, and not just allege so.

One thing you would expect is that somewhere in the sports law that sports clubs or institutions are not allowed to engage 3rd party deals by companies owned by players or referee's because of conflict of interest.

But I guess no such thing exists in Spain considering Gerard Pique company brokered the Copa Del Rey deal which ended up paying Barcelona (his club at the time) more than half of the other teams. But atleast there was proof of services received, though, still you can see there is a conflict here.

Anyways, with no basic statute's saying x can not contract y because of z, then there still needs to be proof- even if it quacks and does look like a duck.

Without it, we're no different than a professional gambler owning Brighton or a betting company owning Brentford.

The other question is how does this issue even initiate. You can watch a Madrid game for yeeeeaaars and see something is not quite right, or the pre and post VAR cases for Madrid after Florentino's public intervention. Or the call versus Atleti that won them the league in the final fixture to win the league in 2014.

You can see that refeering has been dodgy as shit in Spain for years, that this is not an isolated situation. But just like Conor Benn, we we're stupid enough to get caught.

I think the prosecutors will need to prove that the money paid was with an intent to actually influence the refs. Without any written contracts and any evidence showing otherwise (for example if there had been proof that we actually received some legit services for the money we paid), I am afraid they will take whatever Negreira says or said. He can refuse to testify citing Alzheimers', but I am guessing they must have found something concrete in order to formally charge the club, Bartomeu, Rossell and others.

At this point Laporta needs to come out as soon as possible to offer some explanations. I am afraid before it goes to trial (I am sure the court will admit it given the case's notoriety), we might already see some fallouts such as sponsors leaving us. This case reportedly played in a role in our struggle to finalize the Espai Barca funding.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Best thing for Laporta might be to keep his mouth shut and not incriminate himself or say something that will go against the club if it goes to trial.

It will obviously affect our relationship with our sponsors and possibly even the Espai Barca financing but what type of explanation can he even give at this point?
 

Porque

Senior Member
We're absolutely f*cked if we get relegate due to this (which we should if it is confirmed what it looks like).

We just mortgaged our future revenue guaranteed by our tv rights.

The timing couldn't be worse. It would more or less be the end of the club as we know it.
 

ajnotkeith

Senior Member
We're absolutely f*cked if we get relegate due to this (which we should if it is confirmed what it looks like).

We just mortgaged our future revenue guaranteed by our tv rights.

The timing couldn't be worse. It would more or less be the end of the club as we know it.

LaLiga can't bring consequences because they have a statute of limitations. Only entities that could is Spanish prosecutors or UEFA/FIFA that have no time limit.

At worst we probably get banned from Europe and have a big fine.
 

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