Laporta sought with his speech to buy time to avoid a sanction from UEFA

Without allies in Spain, after blowing up the relationship with the president of LaLiga and after distancing himself from Real Madrid, Joan Laporta looked to Europe.

In more than two hours of appearance, the president of Barcelona did not offer solid explanations to justify the payment of 7.3 million between 2001 and 2018 to companies related to the then vice president of the Technical Arbitration Committee, José María Enríquez Negreira.

However, he sought to build a bridge with UEFA.

The attitude of the Barca top manager was not accidental.

Distanced from the European body since Barça entrenched alongside Madrid and Juventus in the creation of the Super League, Laporta opted for the path of dialogue with Aleksander Ceferín, the president of UEFA.

That is why he claimed and the president of Barça clung to the presumption of innocence.

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Laporta attributes the payment of the 7.3 million to Negreira for the arbitration reports made by his son

From Europe, for now, there is no more response than the one that Ceferín offered a few weeks ago.

"It seems to me that it is one of the most serious cases in football since I dealt with it," Ceferín stressed weeks after Cadena Ser uncovered the Negreira Case.

Since 2007, UEFA can sanction "any activity aimed at arranging or influencing the result of a match at a national or international level."

The punishment can reach the year of suspension.

Without too much detour, on March 22, the European body announced the start of an investigation by its Ethics and Disciplinary panel.

From the outset, Barcelona did not rule on the investigation that UEFA had initiated.

Until this Monday, when Laporta highlighted the attitude of the highest European football body.

"Thebes has been in charge of putting more fuel on the fire and making UEFA participate in the lynching without trial that is being done to Barça," Laporta explained.

Immediately afterwards, he qualified: "At first, Mr. Ceferín made some demonstrations when we were also promoting the Super League, but I recognize the prudence that the position requires."

The possible sanction against Barcelona would not only cause a sporting disaster – Barça has already been left out in the group stage of the Champions League in the last two seasons – but it would further weaken the Barça brand, at the same time that it would deprive it of the 40 million euros that the Barça club budgets each season for reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

It would imply an economic hole.

Another one that would be added to the loss of almost 100 million that the move to the Olympic Stadium of Montjuïc will generate for the Barcelona entity once the works begin at the Camp Nou next summer.

"The input I have from UEFA is that this is 'subjudice' and since I am convinced that Barça will be exempt because there is no sports corruption, we will continue to compete normally," Laporta explained.

It happens, however, that there are precedents for UEFA sanctions against clubs for corruption.

Turkish side Fenerbahçe were first banned for one year and later banned for another two years for a match-fixing affair.

The same thing happened to the Albanian Skenderbeu.

The UEFA regulations also provide that there may be sanctions that can be extrapolated to national competitions such as loss of points or relegation, but there are no precedents for this.

“I am convinced that this will not happen, it would be an unprecedented event with a club of the level of Barcelona that is being lynched without having judged it.

False hypotheses are being validated, and this is also known by UEFA.

We are in contact with them, we have explained it to them", concluded Laporta.

He did not provide convincing arguments or explanations based on the long-awaited external audit report, he simply bought time.

Laporta and Barcelona await the trial that will decide whether or not there was sports corruption in the Negreira case.

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