In an official statement, Barcelona have slammed La Liga president Javier Tebas and called for him to resign after allegedly providing false evidence in the club's ongoing Negreira case.
According to La Vanguardia, Tebas, whose impartiality has already been questioned by Culers, provided a letter to the Spanish Prosecutor's office which appears to implicate ex-presidents Josep Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell for alleged unfair administration and misappropriation.
However, there is one huge problem: neither Bartomeu nor Rosell was mentioned in that aforementioned letter, which has left the Catalan giants with the "deepest indignation, anger and dismay".
That letter is a handwritten document from former Blaugrana director Josep Contreras, who sadly passed away at the end of last year. Contreras' family, however, state that this was written decades ago and doesn't discuss Barcelona's two former presidents. Instead, it is in relation to the Spanish Football Federation and the alleged divergence of funds during the reign of Angel Maria Villar.
La Vanguardia claims that Tebas delivered the letter to the Prosecutor's Office on February 22 and specified Bartomeu and Rosell nonetheless. The Liga official has since taken to social media, vehemently denying that he provided false evidence in a statement via his official Twitter account.
"It is false, we do not accuse anyone," Tebas wrote. "The news itself corroborates this by pointing out what the letter to the prosecution said, nor does it imply an exercise of concrete accusation against anyone."
El TITULAR de @LaVanguardia es FALSO, NO acusamos a nadie, la propia noticia lo corrobora al señalar lo que decía el escrito a fiscalia, " ni el presente escrito supone ejercicio de acusación concreta contra nadie"
— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) April 3, 2023
Sr. Conde Godó vigile más a sus PERIODISTAS que calumnian. pic.twitter.com/FJ1URI1ECa
Regardless, Barcelona have issued an official statement in response to this controversy, accusing Tebas of weaponizing the media against the Catalan giants and of being obsessed with persecuting the league leaders.
"Given the gravity of the information that has appeared today Monday in La Vanguardia in which 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 express its deepest indignation, anger and dismay," the statement read.
"For that reason, we urgently require the La Liga president to appear in public to explain himself, beyond the tweet sent in the early hours by Mr.Tebas, lacking substance and with a threatening tone.
"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."
The club also added: "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 it 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 from 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."
The Primera Division giants have been charged by the Spanish state prosecutor's office over payments made to the company of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA).
The payments, which total more than $7M, were allegedly made between 2001 and 2018. The club have thus been charged with corruption but the Blaugrana strongly deny any wrongdoing, stating that the payments were for consultation work and had nothing to do with guaranteeing favorable refereeing decisions.
UEFA have also opened an investigation into this situation, which could result in a one-year ban from the UEFA Champions League if found guilty.
While chaos has ensued off the pitch, Barcelona are soaring high on the pitch. Xavi's men boast a 12-point lead at the top of the table in La Liga and are gearing up for the 2nd leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal showdown with Real Madrid, with Lewandowski and Co. boasting a 1-0 lead.
