Reconciliation week at FC Barcelona for the Negreira case. After appearing before the media on Monday and attending Madrid on Wednesday to attend the League meeting, Joan Laporta traveled to Slovenia this Thursday to meet with the president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, and give him explanations in person. The meeting ended with good feelings for the Barcelona president who had already shown a conciliatory spirit with Ceferin at the massive press conference on Monday. “Fortunately, Ceferin has acted prudently and is acting responsibly,” Laporta said. In Spain there can be no sporting sanction because the facts are prescribed and everything seems to indicate that UEFA will not act without a ruling, so no sporting sanction is expected in the short term.
A few weeks ago, the Blaugrana leader had already sent written explanations to the UEFA president. However, he also wanted to convey the progress in the investigation commissioned to an external law firm by the club’s Compliance area. He first made a stopover in London, where he met the agent Pini Zahavi, representative of Robert Lewandowski, among others, and with whom he has a very good relationship. Zahavi accompanied Laporta to Ljubljana.
In the meeting, as he already did in the LaLiga assembly and also on Monday before the media, Laporta took out the report from the external law firm and made its conclusions clear: Barcelona did not buy any referee for what that there is no crime of sports corruption, the hiring of the services of the former vice-president of the Referees Committee, whose cost amounted to more than 7 million euros, is documented with 629 arbitration reports, 43 CD’s and four various reports corresponding to the period 2014- 2018 and added that all payments have their corresponding invoices. He also alleged that the advice of Negreira’s son, Javier EnrÃquez Romero, in terms of scouting and arbitration reports are common in the professional sports sector.
The meeting took place a month before UEFA has to decide on the participation of the blaugrana club in the next edition of the continental competitions. Although UEFA has the power to leave Barça without playing in Europe for a year without having to wait for a court ruling, the sensations are that the body that governs European football does not want to risk sanctioning the club before a ruling that, in In the event of acquitting the Blaugrana club, it would force UEFA to financially compensate Barça for damages.
