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Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, is under formal investigation for suspected bribery in relation to two decades of activities at Spain’s refereeing committee, according to a court document seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
In March prosecutors filed a complaint over alleged payments of more than €7.3m over 17 years to firms owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish football federation’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018.
Laporta, who started a second term as Barça’s president in 2021, was at the helm from 2003 to 2010. Last month the investigating judge, Joaquín Aguirre López, said Barcelona may have benefited from graft and put the club under investigation for suspected “active bribery”.
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Now Aguirre also named as suspects Laporta and “all those who were members of the board of directors of FC Barcelona during his mandate or who had an effective responsibility in decision-making to allegedly make the illicit payments” to Negreira and his son.
Barcelona have denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement in February that the club had paid an external consultant who supplied them with “technical reports related to professional refereeing”, which it said was a common practice among professional football clubs.
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On Wednesday, Barca told Reuters its legal department was handling the case. In Spain, being placed under investigation does not necessarily lead to indictment and no formal charges can be brought until the first phase of the investigation is completed.
