Barcelona will bring legal action against a former vice-president who has made accusations of management corruption, the La Liga champions announced on Monday.
Last week Barcelona
furiously denied accusations from Emili Rousaud, who was one of six directors
to resign on Thursday, that someone at the club had “put their hands in the
till”.
“The Board of
Directors categorically denies any action that could be described as corruption
and have agreed to bring the corresponding criminal action accordingly,” Barca
said in a statement.
“FC Barcelona
cannot tolerate allegations that seriously damage the institution’s image. The
criminal action to be taken is in defence of the honour of the club and its
employees. The existence of an ongoing audit must put an end to this matter.”
Rousaud’s
allegations focus on February’s social media controversy, when Barcelona were
accused of hiring a company called I3 Ventures to discredit opponents of the
club’s president Josep Maria Bartomeu online, including players like Lionel Messi
and Gerard Pique.
“If the auditors tell us the cost of these services is 100,000 euros and we have paid one million, it means someone has put their hand in the till,” Rousaud told the programme RAC1 on Friday.
Bartomeu terminated
the club’s contract with I3 Ventures in February.
Barcelona added in
their statement that an audit of the club’s social media monitoring contracts
being carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers was being slowed down by the
coronavirus pandemic.
“The current State
of Alarm as a result of Covid-19 has had an impact on the development of
certain analytical procedures,” the statement read.
The announcement is
the latest episode in a political crisis for the club under Bartomeu. All six
resigning board members have called for the club’s 2021 presidential election
to be brought forward.
Rousaud had been
appointed as a club vice-president in January and was seen as a leading
candidate to succeed Bartomeu, who cannot stand again for the post.
Instead, Rousaud
quit alongside fellow vice-president Enrique Tombas, as well as directors
Silvio Elias, Josep Pont, Jordi Calsamiglia and Maria Teixidor.
In recent months
Bartomeu has been involved in a string of political spats being played out in
public.
Messi reacted
angrily in January to Eric Abidal, the club’s technical secretary, suggesting
the players were to blame for the sacking of coach Ernesto Valverde and last
month, the Argentinian star criticised the club’s handling of negotiations with
the squad over pay cuts.