Barcelona have released a statement calling for the resignation of La Liga president Javier Tebas after giving ‘false evidence’ in the controversial Negreira case.
La Blaugrana have been charged with ‘sporting corruption’ after it emerged the club had allegedly made payments to former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The payments of €7m allegedly came between 2001 and 2018 for reports and videos regarding how to behave in front of certain referees.
La Vanguardia have reported that, during the investigation, La Liga president Tebas provided ‘false evidence’ against Barca by allegedly claiming that an incriminating document found at a Barcelona board member’s home was recent when it was decades old.
In light of this La Vanguardia report, Barcelona have responded with a statement:
“Given the gravity of the information that has appeared today Monday in La Vanguardia in which the La Liga president Javier Tebas is linked to the presentation of false evidence to the public prosecutor to incriminate our club, FC Barcelona wishes to expresses its deepest indignation, anger and dismay.
“For that reason, we require the La Liga president urgently to appear in public to explain himself, beyond the tweet sent in the early hours by Mr. Tebas, lacking study and with a threatening veneer.
“FC Barcelona, as president Joan Laporta repeated in recent weeks, feels itself to be the victim of a media campaign for events that never took place: Barça has never paid referees.
“This harassment involves a group of media outlets and opinion writers with varying degrees of intent and with La Liga fanning the flames behind the scenes against out club, with contributions from its president who has only gone in one direction: trying to condemn us in the public’s eyes before the facts have been judged.
“It is not the first time that the president of La Liga has used the media weapons at his disposal to damage FC Barcelona, however, in contrast to his usual nonsense, we could never have imagined that he could try to incriminate our club with false evidence.
“The article published today by La Vanguardia is of such gravity that it should put all the clubs in La Liga on alert, given that is talks of practices which are in no way consistent with the job of the president of La Liga.
“If only for this fact, that of giving himself powers that do not belong to him, although also for reasons of dignity and respect for the presidency of La Liga, Mr. Tebas should resign his post. Nevertheless, aware of his obsession with persecuting FC Barcelona and showing his constant averse and manifest dislike of our club, we understand that the current La Liga president will persist in his efforts to keep damaging our club.”