Soccer-Barcelona accuses previous board of improper management of club funds (updated)
01/02/2022 17:09
(Updates with statement from Bartomeu's lawyer in paragraph 4)
By Fernando Kallas
BARCELONA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The president of Spanish soccer
giants Barcelona, Joan Laporta, on Tuesday accused the former
president and his board of making false payments and other
illegal activities in their management of the club.
Laporta said the club had commissioned an independent
investigation and audit into possible irregularities during
Josep Bartomeu's tenure.
"Our audit found payments that we understand that were
improper management of club funds. The audit do not rule out
illegal enrichment of the authors," Laporta said at a news
conference to present its findings, with attorney Jaume Campaner
and Barca financial vice-president Eduard Romeu alongside him.
Bartomeu's lawyer Jose Maria Fuster-Fabra told Reuters that
Bartomeu is "completely calm" over the accusations but will not
make any further comments because they were not given access to
the results of the investigation and audit commissioned by
Barcelona.
Laporta said Barcelona filed a complaint last Wednesday with
the local prosecutors' office against Bartomeu and his board and
that the office was investigating them for crimes of improper
management of club funds, misappropriation, false accounting and
forgery of documents.
The prosecutors' office confirmed that an investigation was
underway but declined to disclosed details.
"We are not judges or the police, the justice (system) will
decide who is guilty or not. But our investigation found out
that there were payments without justification, payments with
false cause and disproportionate payments by the previous
board," Laporta said.
Bartomeu was arrested last March as part of a police probe
related to allegations of improper management and business
corruption which also saw the club's Camp Nou offices raided.
He and his former adviser Jaume Masferrer did not make a
statement in court and the judge agreed to their provisional
release on bail. The case is still under investigation by
Spanish authorities.
That investigation stemmed from accusations that Bartomeu
and his board hired a marketing consultancy to orchestrate a
social media campaign against current and former personnel who
had been critical of them.
Bartomeu defended his time at the club in an interview with
Barcelona newspaper Sport in October.
"Our management was not disastrous and LaLiga, UEFA and the
auditors say so, with 180 million euros ($202 million) in
profits, and with Forbes valuing us as the most valuable club in
the world," he told Sport.
"This serious and rigorous management was cut short by the
appearance of the pandemic, which led to a drop in income of
some 500 million."
Campaner told the news conference that in recent seasons,
Barcelona had lost more than 600 million euros ($676 million)
and only 135 million ($152 million) were due to the pandemic.
Its debt was about 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion).
"There is a series of very serious criminal behaviours,
which we can describe as grotesque," Campaner said.
"Money cannot be abused or given away as if it were yours."
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
((Fernando.Kallas@thomsonreuters.com;))