Joan Laporta denounced an attack on Barcelona “by land, air and sea” and insisted there was no reason why he should resign as he spoke publicly for the first time since the club were allowed to register Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor in defiance of the ruling by La Liga and the country’s football federation.
The Barcelona president claimed the club had correctly presented “all” the documentation needed to register Olmo and Víctor by the 31 December deadline but admitted they had not been able to provide the proof of income to comply with financial controls until 3 January. He alleged that was through no fault of their own and that the league made unexpected and unnecessary demands of Barcelona, hinting that the federation (RFEF) had said the registration should have been completed.
In a speech that focused more on the emotional than the analytical, Laporta claimed he and the club had been victims of a “lynching” and cited external enemies, “bile” and “hatred”. The two investors whose €100m (£84.3m) purchase of VIP boxes at the new Camp Nou allowed Barcelona to meet their salary limit after four years were not named and Laporta said he did not want to get “into depth” while an investigation is being carried out by the Spanish sports council, which reinstated them pending that inquiry.
“Two key facts have happened in the last two weeks which make a lie of the false, apocalyptic narrative that comes from a lack of knowledge or bad faith,” Laporta said. “The first is that we have reached 1:1 [compliance] with La Liga’s financial fair play, which allows us to sign normally, [including] players like Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor. The second is that to have got to 1:1 we signed contracts such as the one with Nike, which is the best sportswear contract in football. That companies like Spotify and other investors are associated with us makes a lie of those who say we have a bad image and are badly run.
“The fans understood that this was about saving Barcelona from a complicated situation and defend it from attacks from outside and in some cases from inside. Nothing in the last few weeks has surprised us. If you look at our history, you could foresee this reaction. It is not chance that when we start to emerge again, those people, with their media support, start to create a narrative that has nothing to do with our reality. I celebrate that they haven’t got away with it. They will have to work a lot harder to destabilise a club with 125 years of history.”
He said the opposition groups that had called for his resignation had missed “a golden opportunity to support the club” and had “suddenly shot up like mushrooms”. He said: “You think I should resign because of a decision made by the RFEF and the league?!”
Laporta claimed that the sale of VIP boxes had been completed in time to enable Víctor and Olmo to have the registrations completed without the need for temporary measures.
“We presented it to the league on 27 December: we sent it within the deadline, before the end of the year,” he said. “The thing is, on the 28, 29, 30 and 31, the league asked us to complete documentation. We thought we had complied with the rules on 31 December. The league asked for some additional requisites that, in our opinion, are not in the regulation. The rules don’t say you have to prove that the money has been received. The league demanded the deposit of 40% of the funds. There are clubs they had not demanded that from. They are within their right to ask for more documentation, but I think they have acted against their own actions [previously]. In other situations they had not asked for it.
“Imagine trying to get an auditors’ report on 31 December. On 31 December it was all handed in. All that was left to present was part of the minimum deposit the league was asking for to comply with fair play. There is a Qatari investor that invested €30m, another from the Emirates. And we did not get that 40% [deposit] until 30 December so it couldn’t be documented until 3 January. The league asked and we complied: a part before the end of the year and another part on 3 January. It hasn’t been understood [that way] but we handed over everything on time and in the right manner.
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“We asked the RFEF [to issue a licence]. The RFEF said we didn’t have the 1:1 but that there was no problem in completing that extension, that there was an obsolete article to do with the stability of the competition but that we didn’t infringe that. That wasn’t our case because the [players] had contracts [already].”
Laporta also denied insulting members of the federation before the Super Cup semi-final last week and explained footage of him shouting and performing a butifarra (up yours) gesture on his way into the stadium as “contained euphoria” that was not aimed at anyone in particular. “I had a reaction but I didn’t insult anyone, I didn’t grab anyone round the neck, I didn’t kick the furniture. It was euphoria and in part indignation. All the suffering came to my mind. I told the president of the federation directly what I thought. A couple of days later, we cleared it up. I am the way I am.”
