Barcelona soccer club president Joan Laporta during a news conference at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, ​​Spain, April 17, 2023. REUTERS/Albert Gea

BARCELONA, April 17 (Reuters) – Joan Laporta, president of Futbol Club Barcelona, ​​assured on Monday that any payments made to a company owned by a senior referee were transparent and had been made in exchange for advice, not to obtain a sporting advantage. .. illegal.

A Barcelona court took up the case last week, after the prosecution filed a complaint for alleged payments of 7.3 million euros ($7.95 million) between 2001 and 2018 to companies owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, then Vice President of the Technical Committee. Arbitrators.

Laporta said there was a media campaign to discredit the club.

(Reporting by Joan Faus and Inti Landauro; edited in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)

Categorized in:

World

Tagged in:

, , , , ,