The president of the Spanish Football League's top club Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has confirmed that the Catalan club has "never done anything to get some kind of sporting advantage," amid investigations into allegations of bribery of a former senior official of the Spanish arbitration.

 Edited by |Alexander Yaxina

Sports section -  CJ journalist

Barcelona - April,17,2023 

    Last month, Spanish prosecutors accused Barcelona of paying a total of more than 7.3 million euros to a company owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former referee and former vice-president of the Technical Arbitration Committee of the Spanish football federation between 1994 and 2018.

Barcelona said that he paid that amount in exchange for tips and oral advice on topics related to referees.

Laporta reiterated at a press conference held to discuss the issue, "The club has never done anything with the aim or intention of changing the competition to achieve some kind of sporting advantage".

He added that the allegations of wrongdoing were part of a "smear campaign" against the Catalan team, which currently leads the Spanish league.

The lawsuits decided by the public prosecutor's office in Barcelona target the Catalan club as a moral person, in addition to former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) and Sandro Rosell (2010-2014), and Oscar Grau and Albert Solar are being prosecuted among the members of former president Bartomeu's staff.

La Liga president Javier Tebas said last month that Spanish football was experiencing its "worst" moment ever because of the case.

"The reputation of our football is at stake. I feel ashamed. "We have no explanation from Barcelona.

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