In a surprising development in the “Negrera affair,” which has rocked Spanish football, Real Madrid has submitted a formal request to the relevant court, demanding that past statements made by Barcelona president Joan Laporta in 2009 be included as new evidence in the case accusing the Catalan club of paying money to the former vice-president of the referees’ committee.
Real Madrid’s memorandum centers on a famous quote from Laporta at the time, in which he said: “Real Madrid signing a former referee? I’m sure they know what they’re doing, but we at Barcelona respect the refereeing institution and its structure. They do their job well, and we wouldn’t make any such signing. Besides, we don’t know about that market anyway.”
The legal team of the Royal Club believes that these statements represent a blatant and clear contradiction to the arguments Laporta is currently presenting. The current Barcelona administration justifies the payments made to Negrera as being in exchange for “very useful technical refereeing reports.” Real Madrid maintains that Laporta’s 2009 denial of the club’s knowledge of or interest in dealing with referees undermines the current narrative and suggests ulterior motives behind these payments.
At the same time, Real Madrid is requesting an examination of Barcelona’s budgets, internal and external audit reports, annual accounts, and minutes of Barcelona’s tax management committee meetings between 2010 and 2018, focusing on payments made to companies linked to Negra.
The judge must decide whether to accept Real Madrid’s requests to further investigate the Catalan club’s payments.
