Sandro Rosell: "With Messi and Piqué at Barça, we didn't have to pay Negreira."

BarcelonaSandro Rosell only testified for 15 minutes before the judge, but it was enough time to leave the main event of the day in court. "With Messi and Piqué at Barça, we didn't have to pay Negreira," the former Barça president declared, according to Efe, at the courthouse. It was a busy morning at the City of Justice in Hospitalet de Llobregat, where another former Barça president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and Javier Enríquez Romero, the son of José María Enríquez Negreira, the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), also appeared. Between father and son, Barça paid a total of 7.3 million euros between 2001 and 2018.

Rosell and Bartomeu's argument before the judge, who only answered questions from their defense attorneys, was that when they became president, Barça was already paying, and they decided to maintain those commissions because the reports were useful to coaches from a sporting perspective. After his statement, Rosell declined to comment to the press.

Bartomeu, on the other hand, did. "It has become clear that many of the theories that have been put forward have been nullified. Above all, it has been clarified that there were sports advisory services, refereeing reports, that had a financial compensation," explained the former president. "It has also become clear that Enríquez Negreira's departure from the [Spanish] federation has nothing to do with his son being told in the first quarter of 2018 that he would no longer be working for Barça at the end of the season," he added. In the same vein as Rosell, Bartomeu recalled the great team Barça had at the time: "We had the best team in the world and Barça has won every title on its own merits."

Javier Enríquez Romero also briefly spoke to the media. "I've been waiting a while to speak to the person I was going to speak to, and that's what I did. I won't make any statements. I've defended the truth I know," he simply stated. Also testifying at the City of Justice on Thursday were Albert Soler, former director of professional sports at Barça; Oscar Grau, former general director of the Catalan club; and Ana Paula Rufas, Javier Enríquez's partner.

In November, current Barça president Joan Laporta and former coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde are expected to testify as witnesses. Laporta, unlike Rosell and Bartomeu, is not charged because the payments made by Barça during his first term have already expired. A tax audit in 2023 revealed that Barça paid a total of €7.3 million over two decades to Dasnil 95, a company owned by former referee and former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira, in exchange for reports on the work.