How Madrid-biased media reacted to Joan Laporta press conference

Joan Laporta, the president of FC Barcelona, appeared on Monday to speak publicly for the first time about the 'Negreira case'. Laporta was blunt: Barça have not bought referees. Despite the documentary evidence provided by the club, Madrid biased media outlets have not taken long to raise thier voices against the president.

The president held the press conference along with all the documentation that the report of the 'Compliance' area collected, which includes 629 technical-refereeing reports, 43 CDs and 4 scouting reports. Furthermore, he said this is nothing more than a campaign to tarnish the club's image, as not a single document has been found that points to malpractice on the part of the club. For Laporta, this discrediting campaign has clear leaders.

At the end of the club president's press conference, which lasted two hours, all kinds of opinions were expressed:

Pointless press conference

Carles Francino (SER): "The fact, proven and recognised, that Barça paid for several years the number two of the active referees (committee)... that is unpresentable".

David Sánchez (DIARIO MARCA): What Laporta said could have been said 48 hours after the Negreira case broke out. It was an unbearable tirade about the internal investigation, about putting in contact the payments in 8 years, about that... He has even justified that it is normal to pay so much money to Negreira. No matter how much Laporta says he is not going to sanction him. Ceferin is already thinking about whether it will be a one or three year sanction. I'm not convinced and I'm left with even more doubts than I had".

Àngels Barceló: "The image given today by the president of an organisation like Barça is absolutely lamentable".

MisterChip: "He doesn't answer what he is asked and I have to say it. It's going to look like I don't like this man, and what's happening today is that he's making a fool of himself. Two months waiting for this, I thought he was going to come here with a pile of hard evidence to deny everything and...".

All smoke and mirrors

Sergi Sol (La Sexta): "From an ethical and aesthetic point of view, he has not been able to defend this hiring because it doesn't make sense, because it doesn't hold up". 

Ferreras (La Sexta): "Do you know why they paid? Because it worked on the pitch, and they stopped paying when he stopped being number two. Because it no longer works." 

MisterChip: "It was a speech full of smoke, it answered absolutely nothing. Right now, I think Barça is in a worse situation than three hours ago. Nobody can believe the justification of the reports, and nobody can believe what he said about the Confederations Cup and the U-21 team to multiply (Negreira's) salary by four. Right now with Laporta's speech, I am not surprised that he has been restrained for two months so that he does not speak, Barça is in a more complicated situation than three hours ago".