Laporta: It seems referees in Spain always help Real Madrid

Joan Laporta is set to officially begin his third term as Barcelona president on July 1st. Having won the elections on March 23rd, he has been awaiting the moment to once again take the club's reins. In the interim, the boss addressed questions from “El País” regarding his upcoming tenure and some sensitive topics from the past.

Are you taking care of your health?
I'm not obsessive about it. I try not to overdo it. But normal activity encourages a healthy lifestyle: walking, thinking. There was a time when I had high blood pressure, but it was very incidental. Now my blood pressure is normal, and my vital signs are stable. I feel good.

Messi's Departure
I did what I had to do. [...] Leo was at the end of his career, and a new team needed to be built. Would I have liked to build the new team with Leo's help? Yes. We tried, but it didn't work out.

The “Negreira Case“
I've always felt that we have to be much better than everyone else because the referees don't help us. Here, it always seems like they help Real Madrid. They suffer from 'Barcelonitis,' that's obvious. Now they criticize us for hiring someone who was a vice-president, while they had presidents of the refereeing committee linked to Madrid.

Florentino Pérez
It's been a while (since we spoke). Ever since he appeared in the 'Negreira case,' relations deteriorated. We decided to leave the Super League due to a lack of purpose: the project wasn't materializing, and we had already told them that. Furthermore, UEFA was taking steps to improve the sustainability of football in Europe.