The Barcelona board closed Barçagate

He FC Barcelona, after the board meeting, considers that the audit carried out by the firm Price WaterhouseCoopers in the Barçagate case of the monitoring of social networks by the company I3 Ventures, shows that “no defamatory campaign against anyone was commissioned, nor was there any corrupt behavior, the contracted services were within the market range, that the club's internal protocols were not followed for the contracting of the services, although the board of directors was aware of the contracting at two meetings of the board of directors and that the work is incomplete according to the contracted services.

The conclusions were read by the spokesman of the board Josep Vives who considered that “Barça have been harmed and attacked by this campaign and it is difficult for us to repair the damage in what refers to reputation, because they have attacked us in a not very rigorous way “.

In this situation, Barça's board has decided for the moment to take legal action against anyone who has hinted at illegalities on the part of the club and requests the media that echoed these accusations to rectify while announcing that they will ask the company to continue its work. They have also asked the club's CEO, Grascar Grau to develop a new protocol in case of “strategic and confidential” assignments and they will appear in court to take criminal action against all those who accused them of extorting Víctor Font, the precandidate object of these attacks, which according to the audit has nothing to do with the club.

Regarding the fact of not respecting the protocols for internal approval of spending Román Gómez Ponti He assured that “we cannot carry out actions, but in strategic and confidential projects the error was that it was not standardized (sic). By pretending to segment the contract we wanted each party to assume its part, perhaps we were not right, but in no case there was corrupt intention, because if they would be the dumbest in the world when making an annual contract “.

The club lawyer added that “The investigation of the 13th court in Barcelona is a question that will have its course and that we are as interested in solving it and that they let her work calmly because Barça is in the cause as a disadvantaged entity. “

At the moment, the contractor of these services, Jaume Masferrer, which according to what was revealed this Monday, was the object of an extortion attempt that the police are investigating, “will continue to be separated from employment and salary until we analyze all the documentation,” according to the club spokesman, who added the same in the case of Noelia Romero, the compliance officer suspended from employment and salary during the process and who “is currently on medical leave.”

More or less the same was answered when asked if there was a lack of attention from the club when these accounts began to insult: “It is a subject that the board must study,” he said. Gomez Ponti.