Gerard Piqué has no doubts about the honorability of Barça in the ‘Negreira case’. The former Barça defender, retired since last November, is focused on the successful project of the Kings League, but he does not lose sight of the current situation of the club in his life. In an extensive interview for El Món a Rac1, he has assured that he would “put his hand” on fire for the Barcelona managers, including the president Joan Laporta, and he is convinced that the entity did not hire the services of Enríquez Negreira’s company to have arbitration favors.
“I would put my hand in the fire, I know my club. I know what we have done well and what not. If you want it is easy to buy a referee, you give him black money and that’s it. It doesn’t make sense to pay money with invoices for years From here we are used to conspiracies and campaigns,” explained the former player, now dedicated exclusively to his business with his company Kosmos.
The Catalan also explained that he was unaware of the existence of the arbitration reports that Dasnil 95, Enríquez Negreira’s company, supposedly made, since these documents are more focused on coaches: “Obviously the players didn’t know. It’s more for the coaching staff The players know the referees. The coaches are sometimes from abroad, others from home. It helps them to know which foot each referee fits. From here I don’t know if this man’s job was that. I didn’t know Enriquez Negreira”.
Piqué also wanted to clear up any doubts about the victories he achieved in his active days with Barça, most of them at the same time as the payments to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees. “No need to say anything, no matter how much they want to dirty such a beautiful time. You can review all the games, the leagues, you can review everything. We were much superior, we did not depend on the referees,” he defended.
“I think it’s more noise than anything else. I have confidence in the club and in the managers (…) I would pass with flying colors, although I understand that it is a case with the Prosecutor’s Office that has to be studied and worked on,” he concluded about the ‘case Negreira’, for which LaLiga, the Spanish Federation, the CSD and finally Real Madrid will appear before the courts. “The pressure from their supporters has made them end up giving in,” he said about the position of the whites, the only team that had not signed up to the employers’ joint statement with all the clubs.
He also defended himself on the commissions that Kosmos charged for taking the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, an operation that is being studied by the courts due to a possible conflict of interest, since it occurred during his active period. “Rubiales, as far as I know, has not benefited Barça. The problem is how things are explained. The media are private and it is sold depending on how the interests are. I am caught in a war between Rubiales and Tebas” , pointed out about the presidents of LaLiga and the Federation.
Regarding sports news and especially Barça, he celebrated the leadership of the blaugrana in the League, “a very good situation in terms of results”. “If we win the League, I don’t know if it counts, but I’d be happy for the club in a difficult time where it’s hard to win titles. I haven’t considered going to the celebrations if we win,” said Piqué, who only misses his time as a footballer. less “day to day in the dressing room”: “Now it’s time to leave space. It’s a place that doesn’t belong to me.”
“I always said that when I didn’t feel important I would leave it. I didn’t feel as important as I had felt in my career and it made me feel bad. It was a difficult last few months. I won’t go into it if someone cheated on me. I won to choose my ending and that was given to me (…) The decision was considered despite seeming hot. I spent weeks thinking. It was a correct decision”, he explained about the reasons for his withdrawal in the middle of the season, a determination that the “healthiest” for him and the team.
