Rosell breaks Negreira silence: Barça accused of murder when there's no body

Sandro Rosell says "a huge deal has been made" of FC Barcelona's payments to José María Enríquez Negreira in an interview granted to Catalunya Ràdio.

The former president of the Catalan club has catalogued as "hallucinating" and "beastly" that they try to stain "the successes that we achieved thanks to Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol and company with Pep and Tito in the bench."

"We have been accused of murder and we don't even know who the dead man is, where the body is or the weapon we used," he said.

"It has become a huge deal. It's amazing. At Barça, things like this happen every three or four years, it's something historic. Negreira did 100 reports per season, 50 for the first team and 50 for the second team. If we were paying 400,000 euros a year, it comes out at 4,000 per report. And I don't think that's unreasonable. These reports could save us penalties, cards against us. You have to put the case in perspective. If I tell you what the person who cleans the players' boots charges, you'll be shocked. It's a question of paying for confidentiality," he justified.

The former top Barcelona official said that "all the big teams need refereeing reports" because "it is very important to know the habits and behaviour of all the referees. I found out about the amounts of the payments when it all came out in the press. In the board of directors, we approved payments of more than 100,000 euros a month and this was less, around 40,000. I have no idea who signed them. Barça has hundreds of suppliers."

No evidence

Regarding the position of Negreira, then vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Spanish Football Federation, Rosell said that "there was no problem of compatibility," because "this man had no influence on the proceedings or refereeing appointments." According to his point of view, "they have not found any match that we won unfairly and they have looked for another way to accuse us without the need to prove anything. I would like to be shown a match in which a referee helped us. We have lost leagues because of refereeing mistakes. The statistics prove it."

Finally, Sandro uncovered that Josep Maria Bartomeu proposed a joint communiqué from all the presidents of Barcelona about the 'Negreira case' and that if it was not carried out it was not his fault. "I have not spoken to Joan Laporta about the Negreira case. Each one defends his interests, although they are common and our lawyers are in contact. Bartomeu proposed a joint response, but some of the parties involved didn't want it. I was in favour. A very simple thing has been made into a big deal. Negreira made us reports and we paid him. He had no influence and did not appoint referees."