Joan Laporta defends himself after complaint filed by Barcelona member – ‘The aim is to harm me’ | OneFootball

Joan Laporta entered into an open confrontation for the first time since resigning as FC Barcelona president.

In the midst of the pre-campaign ahead of 15 March, the former Barcelona chief reviewed, in a lengthy interview on Catalunya Radio, all the ongoing issues, complaints, financial levers, the Negreira case, and Camp Nou, defending his management against opposition criticism.

On the complaint

Earlier today, it emerged that a Barcelona socio had lodged a complaint at the National Court against Laporta and some of his board members, including interim president Rafa Yuste.

A total of 38 documents were submitted electronically alongside the complaint. The allegations centre on suspected money laundering and the alleged “collection of undue commissions.” 

Defending himself against the allegations, Laporta remarked: “We will respond to the slanders. Everything is false, I already know what this is about. The aim is to harm me.”

He claimed that there is a strategy to “dirty the electoral process” and denied any wrongdoing: “Everything is done with the intention of slandering and defaming.”

Regarding the publication of contracts in his defence, he was clear: “We cannot make certain agreements public due to confidentiality.”

As for the questioned deals, he argued that “they are operations that were carried out to save Barcelona,” a phrase he repeated several times during the interview.

Laporta has defended himself against recent complaints. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

Regarding other issues

Discussing particular issues such as the VIP boxes agreement that paved the way for Dani Olmo’s re-registration and the commission paid to Darren Dein for the Nike agreement, Laporta added:

“The relationship was broken, in court. Thanks to his intervention, we collected the millions withheld by Nike. Darren Dein brought the binding offer from Puma, and thanks to that mediation Nike paid market price.

The commission? It is paid over 14 years between Barcelona, 1.65 per cent, and Nike, 1.25 per cent, if the contract is not broken. The €50 million figure is not true, they must include Nike’s part. Everything is to throw mud.”

The former president also defended the Espai Barça project and the choice of Limak to build the new Spotify Camp Nou.

“It was a brave and necessary decision. I would do it again. We need these revenues to compete at the elite level. We were eleven years behind schedule, I left the Foster project and nothing was done.”

“We spoke with up to 20 investors who invested €1.472 billion to carry out Espai Barça,” he explained regarding the financing.

“Limak won the tender, accepted the construction contract and the others did not. Moreover, I did not want to be subject to a political uncertainty that could lead us to collapse and stop the works for collateral reasons.

“Spanish construction companies have been sanctioned for manipulating and organising prices in tenders to dominate processes. And there are people who are not very supportive of Barcelona, and with Limak we did not have those risks,” he concluded.

Source: SPORT