Ex-Barcelona President in corruption case

Former Barcelona President Sandro Rosell has explained that the Blaugrana, in his eyes, could not have influence referees over the 17-year period in which they made payments to the former Vice-President of the Referees Committee (CTA). A section of his declarations heavily implied that much of the accusation was based on sour grapes from rivals Real Madrid, who appear as a claimant in the case.

Last week, son of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, Javier Enriquez Romero, told the judge that the €7.5m in payments ‘had nothing to do’ with the reports on referees that he had been authoring over a five-year period. Meanwhile another ex-Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu also gave evidence, explaining that he was barely aware of the connection to Negreira or Romero.

While Romero faced questions from the public prosecutor, Rosell and Bartomeu have thus far only faced questions from their own lawyers. Both are included in alleged charges of sporting corruption and fraud. However Rosell, as revealed by Cadena SER, said that Negreira had no influence on officiating.

“This man, in the CTA, had zero influence. Ze-ro. He had no influence at all. In the CTA, the one who has had influence has been the president. And historically, over these 70 years, I don’t know if always or most of the time, all the presidents of the CTA have declared themselves Real Madrid fanatics. The only one who has any influence at the CTA is the president, and he’s always been a Real Madrid fan.”

He continued along this line of argument, saying that during his period in charge, Barcelona had little need for help from officials. Rosell confidently told the court that he would be happy to watch every game over the period in question, where they would find obvious evidence that Barcelona were not favoured.

“Yes, it’s very simple. We’re going to watch and review all the matches, and have five referee experts come and tell us in which match the referee helped us. Let them come. Here they can’t say I’m closing the case for lack of evidence. Here the evidence is in favour of the accused. It’s the other way around. Here they can say we’re closing the case because the evidence is in favour of the accused… and that’s it. Let’s all sit down and watch the matches again. I’d love to. Maybe some people here wouldn’t like to watch it again. I’m sorry. But sometimes you don’t win. Sometimes you lose, and you have to accept that.”

Rosell explicitly referenced the fact that Real Madrid are reportedly looking to elevate complaints about officiating in Spain to FIFA, long after the exit of Negreira from the CTA.

“A gentlemanly club should have accepted it and not dragged it out forever, as they’re trying to do to cover up other things. Like now, for example, after four league games, they’ve already gone to complain to FIFA about the refereeing. Where is Mr. Negreira now?”

In the coming weeks and months, current Barcelona President Joan Laporta is expected to give evidence too, but as a witness rather than as the accused. While he was in power before Rosell, that period has prescribed due to a statute of limitations. Meanwhile former Barcelona managers Ernesto Valverde and Luis Enriquez are also due to give evidence.