The president of FC Barcelona appeared two months and two days after Cadena Ser brought to light the payment of 7.2 million euros to companies owned by José María Enríquez Negreira and his son. Hence the importance of the president's press conference. A Joan Laporta collaborator even assured that the president's intervention was more important than the one he did on August 6, 2021, one day after announcing the non-continuation of Leo Messi.
It was necessary for Barça to give its version after the internal investigation commissioned and there was a desire to listen to the explanations that Laporta gave to the media for the first time. In his speech there were several words that stood out above the rest, concepts that the president wanted to repeat to emphasize his conclusions.
How could it be otherwise, since the controversy of the Negreira case was about advice on the arbitration issue, the "reports" were the documentary support on which the payments were based and was the star word. Up to 52 times it was pronounced. Laporta presented four folders with the 629 reports found between 2014 and 2018 and the president classified them as "necessary, quality, well done, very precise" and carried out by "trained people". But the reports of the Tax Agency and the preliminary report of the conclusions of the investigation were also cited.
Until this appearance, Laporta had denounced an orchestrated campaign that wanted to discredit and control Barcelona. And the campaign continues to be present in the president's explanations. The word appeared thirteen times in the two hours of appearance. In addition, the president assured that he will defend the "honour" of the club categorically and to the end on eleven occasions.
The compliance area is currently in charge of resolving conflicts of interest and assessing ethical issues. She is also the one who commissioned the investigation to an external office. Laporta repeated Anglicanism 21 times.
It is still remarkable that Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, had such a leading role in a press conference on the Negreira case. But the latent conflict between Thebes and the Barcelona leadership is well known. It seemed that Laporta wanted to avoid referring to him by his name. On 13 occasions the formula “the president of the Professional Football League” was used. In fact, the name of Thebes was only mentioned three times, one of them in a question and not in an answer.
Laporta insisted that the moment is not accidental and that the objective is to "destabilize" Barcelona now that it is recovering its status. He seven times he denounced that attempt.
According to the president, in the Negreira case, Barcelona has been subjected to a media and public "lynching" without waiting for justice to do its job. Six lynchings was repeated by Laporta, who reiterated his confidence eight times that the club will be exempted from any crime of "sports corruption."
The president was hurt by Real Madrid, to the point of cataloging the white club's position of presenting itself as a private prosecution in the Negreira case as "cynicism" five times. Only once in his initial speech did he speak of "envy." And it is that Laporta considers that if Barcelona can be something in this controversy and in the invoices that the deceased Contreras sent to the club, it is a "victim". He repeated it nine times.
