Barcelona president Joan Laporta insists referee payments were legal
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has said that all payments made to a company owned by a senior refereeing official were transparent and came in exchange for advisory and not to get any illegal sporting advantage.
A Barcelona court agreed to take on the case last week after prosecutors filed a complaint over what they alleged were payments of €7.3m from 2001 to 2018 to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
Laporta said there was a media campaign to discredit the club.