Joan Laporta, the current president of FC Barcelona, has been indicted in the ongoing investigation of the “Negreira affair” arbitration scandal, as announced by Spanish courts.
Previously, the club and its former presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, were charged with corruption in this case, alongside José Maria Enriquez Negreira, the ex-leading Spanish referee under scrutiny, and his son.
Laporta, who led the club from 2003 to 2010, had remained unchanged until this recent development. The judge’s recent report indicated that due to the severity of the charges, Laporta shouldn’t be protected by the statute of limitations.
Allegedly, FC Barcelona paid Negreira over 7.3 million euros between 2001 and 2018 via Dasnil 95, a company owned by the former referee.
These payments ceased when Negreira was demoted from his senior position in Spanish refereeing. This controversy dubbed the “Negreira affair”, has cast a shadow over FC Barcelona for some time, even though the club denies any wrongdoing.
The investigation expanded in late September with a raid on the Technical Committee of Arbitrators’ headquarters, situated within the Federation premises near Madrid.
The publication writes that all of them “were integrated into the organizational structure of the club and bore effective responsibility for decision-making.”
