Documentary that reveals Laporta scandal at Barcelona – first details released

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has been embroiled in a legal battle over the 'Reus case' and a documentary focusing on the issue has only cast further doubt on his handling of both the case and his management of Barcelona.

Laporta has faced accusations of appointing those with personal connections to positions at the club rather than on merit, and the allegations in the documentary certainly speak to these.

The "Reus" case centers around Laporta and other Barcelona directors (when they were not in office) Joan Olive, Rafa Yuste and Xavier Sala i Marti, who have faced five legal complaints accusing them of fraud.

The deal in question involved investing in a company (Core Store), with the promise of a return on investment, which in turn acquired 53 percent of Reus.

In the documentary, as detailed by Relevo, sisters Paula and Carmen Tartas, who invested in Core Store, were recorded unknowingly talking about what they had been told by the broker Sandra Sole, who initially solicited their investment. They appear to suggest that Laporta had offered some of the investors who did not return their money jobs in Barcelona in order to avoid legal action.

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"He told us we would get paid anyway, I'll tell Barca to hire you. Everyone at Barca is involved: his wife, his brother, his cousin... It might seem like a Mercadona, but for football," the documentary about the "Reus" scandal says.

"You don't have to work, it's a contract, and they will pay you. Their brother, who also invested 50 thousand euros, in addition to the 400 thousand euros invested by his siblings, is an artist and they claim that 'they offered to buy his paintings for the price of the debt and that Barcelona would buy them'."

The aforementioned Toni Cruz, one of the investors in Core Store, is now a director at Barca One, while Laporta has admitted in court that he hired Sole to seek investors for Core Store.

However, Laporta has so far denied the fraud allegations and the case is still ongoing. It is also unclear what power Laporta had to make employment choices at the club, given that he was not at the club at the time. /Telegraph/