Former Barcelona executives targeted for leaking contracts and derogatory comments against Messi and Piqué

An investigation of The Mosso d’Esquadrathe Police of Catalonia, believes that there may be a crime of disclosure of secrets by the people who leaked the contracts Lionel Messi and of Gerard Pique to El Mundo newspaper and names Oscar Grau, former general manager of FC Barcelona, ​​​​​​and Román Gómez-Ponti, former head of the club’s legal services, as alleged culprits.

“Everything indicates that Óscar Grau and Román Gómez-Ponti wanted and intended to make public the personal data of FC Barcelona workers such as Leo Messi and Gerard Piqué. Josep Maria Bartomeu had direct knowledge of these claims, so it cannot be excluded that these people are collaborators”say the Mossos in a report included in the summary of the case barçagatepresented by «El Periódico» and to which the EFE agency has had access.

The police report explains that they found “some concrete conversations” in the electronic devices of Gómez-Ponti and Grau, investigated in the investigative process of the ‘Barçagate’, “which would be connected to possible acts that constitute the crime of revealing secrets”.

Bartomeu has filed a formal appeal to the investigating court of Barcelona number 13 in which he requests that this Mossos report be withdrawn from the investigation into the barçagate.

“As can be seen from a mere reading of it, it is nothing more than a new report (and it is not the first) in which the Mossos in an absolutely partisan and partial way extract some alleged indications, completely taken out of context”reads the text that the former Barça president sent to the judge through his lawyer.

Furthermore, the letter states that “Bartomeu, far from participating in the leak, considers it negative, while the Mossos come to the surreal and Kafkaesque conclusion that Bartomeu might have something to do with it”.

bad messages

On January 31, 2021, the newspaper ‘El Mundo’, which later also published more information about the contracts of Messi and Gerard Piqué, revealed the contract between the Argentine star and FC Barcelona, ​​​​​​reporting that the club of Barça should pay the Argentine player gross 555,237,619 euros in four seasons.

According to the Mossos, “the media may not be criminally responsible for the publication of the news, […] but whoever would have criminal liability could be the person or persons who appropriated the contracts and then leaked them to the press”.

On the same January 31, after the publication of the news, the former president Bartomeu, Gómez-Ponti and Grau sent messages via a WhatsApp group in which other managers and leaders of the club were also present and which appears in the report of the regional police.

“Oscar (Grau), this leak only managed to leave the club, it was never made public and I understand that only a few people have access to Messi’s contract. I don’t think it was his leak that left Chi the has leaked it does damage to the club”wrote Bartomeu.

Later, Gómez-Ponti replies: “Barto, really, you can’t be such a good person to this sewer rat. The club gave him everything and he dedicated himself to scoring a dictatorship of transfers, transfers, renewals, sponsors just for him, etc. I will never be able to do so, but Pinto, the renewal of Suárez and Jordi Alba or the commission for the renewal of Fati should be added to the figures in his contract.”.

And he adds: “Rodrigo Messi’s agent (the footballer’s brother)? But he can’t even read and, what’s more, he had a drug dealer as a partner. And above all, the accumulation of blackmail and rudeness that the club and those of us who work We have suffered from this hormonal dwarf who owes his LIFE to Barça, but when things go wrong (pandemic) you receive his mythical message of ‘president, lower the salaries of others, but don’t touch me and Luis (Suárez)’ I hope that if go away in the indifference of the people, which is the worst thing that can happen to him (another pesetero…)”.

To this long message, Grau replied with a short one “Yup”. And, Bartomeu, for his part, said it was “agree on many things” even if “Barça goes first and this type of article damages the club’s image”.

Soon after, Oriol Tomás, director of the club during Bartomeu’s tenure, stressed that he gave it to him “the feeling that it is part of an electoral strategy (there were elections in March 2021) and there can only be Laporta and his contacts behind it”. and considered it “the more disastrous Barça is, the greater the aspirations for Laporta”.

more complaints

On the other hand, in a February 3rd conversation belonging to the same WhatsApp group, Gómez-Ponti once again refers contemptuously to Leo Messiafter the then still firm Barcelona player announced a lawsuit against club officials who had leaked the information.

“Barto, I repeat, if they report me, I’ll explain things to them. And the only good thing for them was that they asked for a fee for doing nothing, taking advantage of the fact that the hormonal dwarf made the coach’s training “commented the then head of the Catalan club’s legal services.

Earlier, on March 22, 2020, in the midst of negotiating a salary cut for the Barça squad due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gómez-Ponti wrote this snippet in an email addressed to Bartomeu and with a copy to Grau: “It wouldn’t be a bad idea to publish the contracts of the first team millionaires so that people can repudiate them publicly”.

Indeed, on 14 August 2020, after the elimination of the Champions League quarter-finals at the hands of Bayern Munich 2-8, Gómez-Ponti defended in a WhatsApp conversation with Bartomeu that “contracts should be leaked” by Gérard Piqué.

“Example of an unscrupulous son of a bitch: Piqué”, The head of the legal services also condemned before copying the statements made by the former Barcelona midfielder after the elimination in which he called for structural changes to the club.

Source: EFE