Spanish league clubs expressed unease on Tuesday about payments by Barcelona to a referees바카라 official for years.
Barcelona has been under scrutiny since a state prosecutor was revealed to be probing club payments totaling millions of dollars to a company that belonged to the vice-president of the Spanish federation바카라s refereeing committee. Barcelona has denied any wrongdoing, saying it paid for technical reports on referees but never tried to influence their decisions in games.
The league released a statement saying the majority of clubs showed 바카라deep concern about this case, which they consider to be of the utmost seriousness.바카라
League president Javier Tebas said the case damaged the reputation of Spanish soccer and Barcelona president Joan Laporta 바카라should resign if he can바카라t explain the payments.바카라
Laporta said on Tuesday the club will soon explain itself, but attacked what he called a campaign to try and damage Barcelona바카라s name.
바카라Tebas has always showed that he is anti-Barcelona,바카라 Laporta said. 바카라He tries to destabilize us. But I바카라m not going to give him the satisfaction of resigning.바카라
Barcelona said it started its own investigation into the case with outside help.
The league said the proposal of a joint statement from the clubs against Barcelona received 바카라unanimous support바카라 of all clubs in the first and second divisions with the exception of Barcelona and Real Madrid, 바카라who objected to the joint statement for different reasons.바카라 Madrid president Florentino Pérez has been historically at odds with Tebas.
The league and the clubs바카라 executive committee 바카라reject and condemn the facts, and are deeply concerned and actively working to clarify any irregularities that may have occurred.바카라
Sevilla and Espanyol released statements on Monday about their worries.
The league said it was 바카라following this matter very closely and will act firmly within the powers and limits allowed by law.바카라
The league said it sent a letter to the prosecutor바카라s office and offered to help different European bodies that may investigate the case. It said any other actions it took will not be made public to safeguard the investigation.
The payments, which have yet to be linked to any illegal or improper activity by Barcelona, were being investigated as part of a tax probe into the company by the former vice-president of the refereeing committee.
The league said sporting sanctions against Barcelona were not possible because the statute of limitations on the possible irregularities expired.
