Barcelona Boss Joan Laporta Charged with Corruption in Negreira Case

The current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, is in hot water. A court in Barcelona has charged him with corruption and match-fixing allegations involving the Catalan club.

The case goes back to February. The court suspects that former and current Barcelona leaders paid over 7 million euros to José Negreira, a former referee official, between 2001 and 2018. This was to get friendly refs for their games. This scandal is known as “the Negreira case”.

At first, the court didn’t charge Laporta. He was the president of the club from 2003 to 2010, and the statute of limitations for such crimes is 10 years.

But the court changed its mind. It said that the crime was ongoing, committed by the club itself, and ended only in 2018. So, Laporta can’t escape the charges because of the statute of limitations. The clock starts from 2018.

Barcelona denies any wrongdoing. They admit that they paid 7 million euros to Negreira, but they say it was for consulting services on refs. They say this is normal for football clubs.

If the court finds them guilty, Barcelona could face serious consequences. They could be banned from European competitions or even relegated to a lower division.