Joan Laporta testifies over payments to referee, denies Barcelona ever won due to favourable decisions

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta testified in court on Friday morning over the Negreira case.

The judge investigating the so-called ‘Negreira case’ involving payments from FC Barcelona to the former vice president of the Referees’ Technical Committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, cited Laporta and former managers Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde to testify back in June.

The judge considers statements from the president and two former managers of the FC Barcelona first team "necessary" for providing additional context for the investigating authorities. However, none of Joan Laporta, Luis Enrique, or Ernesto Valverde are accused of any wrongdoing or charged with anything, as things stand. 

Laporta told the court that the team never won because of favourable refereeing decisions, but thanks to the quality of the squad.

"We did not benefit from [referees] at all, we were an example to the world," Laporta said, according to legal sources in the Palace of Justice.

Laporta testified as a witness, but was asked about his first two terms as president of the club, from 2003 to 2010, although this period falls outside of the statute of limitations.

According to sources present inside the courtroom, Laporta said he did not personally know either Negreira or his son, Javier, who prepared hundreds of reports on referees for FC Barcelona over the years.

He also explained that in the first years of his term, he did not know that these reports were made. When he found out, he was told that they had been made since before his presidency, and the sports commission explained to him that they were very useful and that it was worth keeping them.

The payments for the reports, amounting to up to hundreds of thousands of euros per year, were not approved by the board of directors because they did not exceed the minimum amount established, Laporta said.

The previous judge in charge of the Negreira case, Joaquín Aguirre, had indicted Joan Laporta, although the Barcelona Court of Appeals cleared him due to the statute of limitations. Laporta was previously in charge of the Catalan club between 2003 and 2010. 

Instead, prosecutors consider Laporta’s appearance as a witness in court relevant "so that he can testify about the motive behind the payments made to the holding companies managed" by the Negreira family, such as Dasnil 95, Nilsad SPC, and Soccercam SL.

Former managers testify

Former FC Barcelona first team managers Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde both testified as witnesses on Friday morning, via videoconference from Paris and Bilbao, respectively.

Both said they were not aware of the referees' reports that the club commissioned from the son of the former vice president of the Referees' Technical Committee, José María Enríquez Negreira.

They both also assured that they won titles thanks to the quality of the team, rather than from any undue favour from referees.

In addition, Valverde said that many clubs commission this type of referee reports, but he has never used them, neither during his time at Barça nor in other teams he has coached.

Ex-presidents Bartomeu and Rosell

In September, two former FC Barcelona presidents testified at the same courthouse in connection with the same case.

Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu are under investigation for alleged corruption involving the payments to the former referee.

Both denied ever bribing referees, insisting the payments were solely for referee analysis reports to help prepare the team for matches.

They further argued that during their terms, from 2014 until the reports ended in 2018, FC Barcelona had no need to influence referees, as the squad’s quality was sufficient to win titles on its own.

Podcast

Listen to the podcast below, recorded in 2023, to learn more about the case:  'The Negreira affair – FC Barcelona and the referee payments scandal'.