Barcelona president Joan Laporta broke his silence over the refereeing scandal engulfing the club and went on the attack, referring to Real Madrid as the club most favoured by match officials.
Laporta said: ‘Everyone knows that Real Madrid is a club historically favoured by refereeing mistakes.
‘For seven decades the presidents of the referees have been ex-Madrid members, ex-players or ex-managers, sometimes all at the same time! For Madrid to add their name to the lawsuit is an unprecedented exercise in cynicism.’
Barcelona are accused of paying €7m (£6m) over 18 years to the son of the then vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee for what the club claims were technical reports.
Laporta had been criticised for not responding to the allegations before but in a 35-minute speech he repeated time and again that Barcelona had done nothing wrong and accused of Madrid and La Liga president Javier Tebas of having ulterior motives for adding their weight to the prosecution.
Laporta said: ‘FC Barcelona has never carried out any action with the aim or intention of adulterating the competition in order to gain a sporting advantage. ‘The tax authorities have not been able to prove that the payments made could have affected any result. And they have not been able to prove it because it was not possible.’
Laporta showed two boxes full of documents and CDs to reporters and said: ‘There are 629 technical reports here on referees and 43 CDs.’
He added: ‘It is not criminally illegal to pay for advice. We did it with clarity and transparency. There are invoices that have been recorded in the club's accounts.
‘The invoices are itemized by bank transfer and are documented in the club's accounts. There has been no intention to hide anything.’
Barcelona are also accused with fraud but Laporta said: ‘The club would be the victim if it were the case that some individuals have had an interest in making a profit.
‘Perhaps some people have taken advantage of the context to engage in irregular conduct for their own benefit. We have a major interest in seeing the investigation through to the end.’
Laporta first went for La Liga president Tebas saying: ‘He has been very unprofessional. I ask him to stop fuelling this controversy because he is denigrating his competition with false assumptions.’
And then he turned his attention to Real Madrid saying: ‘The fact that Real Madrid has added its name to the lawsuit, alleging that it feels it has been wronged in sporting terms, in reference to a period coinciding with Barcelona's best years, is an unprecedented exercise in cynicism.
‘Real Madrid say they feel they have been wronged. A club that has been favoured by refereeing decisions historically and now too. For whatever reasons. It has been considered the team of the regime.’
Laporta also blamed Aleksander Ceferin saying: ‘UEFA has been encouraged to join the lynching just at the time when we have shown our will to change the European competition.’
He added: ‘I would like to thank FIFA and president [Gianni] Infantino, who have waited for the case to be judged without joining the lynch mob.’
Barcelona left themselves open to the claim they were buying influence with their contractual relationship with the refereeing vice-president’s son. But Laporta said: ‘Negreira had no influence on the referees. He did not have the capacity to do so. This has been corroborated by many referees who have spoken out.’
Laporta was asked why no one at the club could see the conflict of interests indirectly hiring a top refereeing official. He said: ‘Today, companies have compliance departments that detect this possibility. I understand that it would now protect us from an ethical point view.’
He also said the figure of 7m looked worse than it was because it had been taken out of context. ‘It should be contextualized,’ he said. ‘The money was paid over 18 years. These were necessary and important reports.’