Joan Laporta: «Barça has never acted with the aim of altering the competition».
The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, insisted this Monday that the azulgrana club «has never carried out any action that had as its final objective or intention to alter the competition to achieve some kind of sporting advantage», at the same time that he denounced the «public lynching» against the institution for the ‘Negreira case’, for which he asked «institutions and media» to respect the «principle of innocence».
They never wanted to alter the competition
«FC Barcelona has never carried out any action that had as its final objective or intention to alter the competition to achieve some kind of sporting advantage,» Laporta reiterated during an appearance before the media to give explanations for the ‘Negreira case’.
Gigantic international smear campaign
The leader began his speech by denouncing a «gigantic international smear campaign», with «defamatory statements that have nothing to do with reality». «At Barça we want to win, and we like the way we win, playing well. We don’t like to win with refereeing help. It is obvious that we have detractors, who try to erode our prestige, sometimes out of envy, out of sentiment and other times out of extra-sporting issues,» he said. «No smear campaign will prevent Barça from continuing to be an institution or a club of reference for world sport,» he added.
Professional advice
Laporta said that Barça has «professional advice» from a person with «experience in the refereeing profession» who carried out his work «with clarity and transparency». «This advice existed and is in the invoices, paid by bank transfer,» he commented. «There are individuals from an external entity 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 knowing the issue to the end. FC Barcelona is a victim in this matter. In no case would Barça be responsible».
«Intolerable and inexplicable.»
The azulgrana president appeared together with the 629 technical-arbitration reports, 43 CD’s and 4 diverse reports that the external investigation analyzed, appealing to the «presumption of innocence that Barça has not had at the media level until now». «It has been subjected to a condemnation and media lynching without trial. We are witnessing a Solomonic trial, it is intolerable and inexplicable,» he lamented.
«LaLiga has acted unwisely.»
«LaLiga has acted unwisely, irresponsibly and with an evident lack of professionalism. I ask Tebas to stop feeding this controversy. He is validating a hypothesis that is false,» he criticized the president of the employers’ association, before thanking Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF; José Manuel Franco, president of the CSD; and Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, for their «prudent actions».
