Barcelona release official statement denying accusations against Joan Laporta

Barcelona are no strangers to controversy and while for the most part the accusations of them breaking the rules have been limited to the salary limit under Joan Laporta, a fresh incident has emerged.

Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, who leaked communication between Gerard Pique and RFEF President Luis Rubiales, say they have evidence that Barcelona have broken club rules with the award of the contract to renovate Camp Nou to Turkish firm Limak (via Sport).

There were oversights in the bidding process, including breaches of the rules set out by the club statutes themselves, by Joan Laporta and his board. Supposedly Limak not only should not have been able to to win the bidding process, but did not fit the club’s criteria to present a bid.

They also say that this could in turn result in the loss of planning permission from Barcelona council, in what would be a catastrophic setback.

The club responded swiftly to these allegations, denying on each of five specific points with an official statement. They say many of the cited issues pertain to a set of statutes outlined in 2017, rather than the updated 2022 version. The statement goes on to claim that their building licence has not been endangered and that the process for choosing the business to carry out the work is entirely independent of each other.

El Confidencial have proven that they have access to a number of privileged sources in the past, but it would be no surprise if Barcelona had voted through amendments to make the awarding of the contract easier. It is unusual to see Barcelona give such a detailed rejection of these kinds of accusations, which suggests Laporta is highly unhappy with the concept.