FC Barcelona terminates company contract linked to negative comments on networks

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What is economic doping in football clubs? 1:00

(CNN Spanish) - The president of FC Barcelona, ​​Josep Maria Bartomeu, reported Tuesday that he terminated the contract of one of the companies that manage the digital image of the club and said that “Barça
He has never hired any service to discredit anyone. ”

Bartomeu added that the company with which the work link was terminated would be allegedly related to accounts that made "inappropriate comments" in relation to club people.

The leader said that, at the end of 2017, the institution hired social network monitoring services as part of the “responsibility” it has to know “what is happening, what is being said to preserve Barça”.

"To the question of whether we have commissioned to discredit people or institutions through social networks, the answer is no and we will persecute all those who accuse us of it," said Bartomeu, who attended during this day the XIV edition of the Prize of Sports Journalism Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.

This Monday, Barcelona had already "flatly" denied having paid online smear campaigns against its players.

Through a statement published on its website, the club thus denied information from the SER Chain, which claimed to have had access to reports prepared by the company hired by the club in which it would record certain alleged practices to “protect the image of the club president ”attacking“ people from different areas of the Barca ecosystem ”.

Although Bartomeu did not give the name of the company now unlinked to the club, CNN is trying to verify whether it is I3 Ventures, indicated in the report of the SER, or other companies. This Monday through a statement on his Twitter account I3 Ventures said it is "absolutely false" to generate disqualifying comments and decoupled from social media channels that the SER attributed to him.

"I3 Ventures is responsible for tracking and monitoring of all social networks and digital channels for said institution, with the scope referred exclusively to its reputational management," they said in the statement.

CNN has so far tried unsuccessfully to communicate with I3 Ventures, while Cadena SER maintains its reports on the company and the club.

Pau Mosquera collaborated with this report

FC Barcelona