Bartomeu Explains Negreira Case, Messi Situation, and Claims Laporta Lied About Financials

The former Barcelona president, who halted the payments, insists that José María Enríquez Negreira “did not perform any services for the club.” “Javier’s (his son’s) reports existed,” he told Cadena SER Catalunya radio. This very media outlet uncovered the “Barçagate” scandal – one of the factors that led to his premature departure and ended an era that began with the treble in 2015 but concluded disastrously.

“I would hire Nicestream again,” Bartomeu surprisingly stated when asked about the company that, through Twitter (now X) and Facebook accounts, allegedly worked to damage the image of perceived club enemies (Messi, Piqué, Xavi, Victor Font, Guardiola...).

“Barça hired a social media monitoring service because it was necessary to know what was being said about the club in the digital world. The club always monitored traditional media to know what was being written about Barça not only in Catalonia but also worldwide, where we have members and investors. But we didn't have such monitoring in the digital space. After 2016, with the Neymar case and amidst political processes, I decided to launch it. I was looking for a company not connected to the political world, and I chose Nicestream because it had a neutral profile. I didn't want the club to become politicized because we had a political problem on the board of directors with many different tendencies. I deny ordering anyone to be attacked. We never asked Nicestream to do that. But yes, I would hire them again because we needed monitoring,” explained the former 'Blaugrana' president.

Bartomeu also commented on the Negreira case, despite being the one who stopped payments to the former vice-president of the Referees' Technical Committee. “I can speak about the period from the 2010/11 season to 2018. The payments were for referee reports and videos. The reports were made and were useful. Gerard (Piqué) said he had them. Perhaps Luis Enrique and Valverde didn't receive them, but their assistants did. In March 2018, Pep Segura told me that the reports would be produced internally, and Javier Enríquez was informed that this would be the last season he would collaborate with us. His father did not perform any services for Barça. And the payments? This goes back many years, and I don't have an answer...” Bartomeu clarified that the investigation focuses on the 2013-2018 period and that Javier Enríquez's reports from that period exist.

Bartomeu also defended his economic management and criticized Laporta. “During my tenure, the wage bill was 70% of the budget. This is a lot, but for Barça, it was manageable because we had high revenues. If we had 1 billion in revenue, 700 million was a significant but tolerable amount. We could afford it, even if we were on the edge. Busquets had offers from England, Messi was constantly receiving them, and contracts were being renewed. If we wanted to maintain sporting excellence, we had to do it. When revenues dropped in March 2020 due to the pandemic, everything changed. However, in October 2021, La Liga conducted an audit that estimated COVID's impact on Barça at 500 million euros. Laporta, however, inflated the losses and claimed there was mismanagement, not actual losses. This led to Barcelona losing financial fair play compliance. If he had declared the losses as he should have, Barça would have been able to amortize them in five installments, and we would have complied with fair play. Laporta talks about an economic legacy in this campaign... five years later. This is not relevant.”

Finally, he also spoke about Messi, who, during his presidency, sent a fax requesting to leave months before Bartomeu's resignation. “I would have kept Messi until the World Cup in Qatar. We had talked about them going to Miami because Beckham had been here. I tried to renew Messi's contract until 2022, but he preferred to wait. For me, Messi was fundamental from an economic and commercial point of view. If we haven't recovered those revenues to this day, it's because he's not here.”