Former Barca boss denies charging commissions

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta on Thursday denied pocketing millions of euros in illegal commissions relating to a 2008 deal between the Catalan side and a football club from Uzbekistan.

Turkish football agent Bayram Tutumlu claimed that Laporta charged a commission of three million euros for helping arrange the deal with FC Bunyodkor that saw several Barcelona players go to Uzbekistan to oversee training sessions.

The money was deposited in a Swiss bank account belonging to Laporta’s law firm, Laporta & Arbos, Tutumlu told a news conference in Barcelona on Thursday.

Laporta dismissed the allegations, calling them “rubbish, nonsense and barbarities”.

“My office does not charge illegal commissions, but fees for delivering legal services to companies. I never charged money for issues related to FC Barcelona,” he told a news conference.

Last week a Barcelona court opened an investigation into alleged irregularities in Laporta’s dealings with FC Bunyodkor.

Laporta also said he would file a suit against the current board of Barcelona as well as sports daily Marca and accounting giant KPMG for accusing him of financial mis-management.

He stepped down after seven years at the helm of the club in June and was replaced by Sandro Rosell who won a sweeping victory in club elections.

On taking power in July, Rosell commissioned KPMG to carry out an audit of Barcelona’s accounts that uncovered a post-tax loss of 77.1 million euros for the 2009-10 season, its first loss in seven years.

That compared with a net profit of 11 million euros reported by Laporta and the rest of the previous board of directors a month earlier.

Laporta was Barcelona chairman from 2003 to 2010. Under his guidance Barcelona won the Champions League twice and the Spanish league four times making it the most successful period in the club’s history.

FC Bunyodkor famously signed former Barcelona and Brazil forward Rivaldo on a lucrative deal in 2008. Rivaldo rescinded his contract in August.