Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, previously played for and managed Barcelona, winning 14 titles in four seasons as the Catalan club’s head coach and being a well-known member of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team as a player. the 52-year-old was the youngest coach to win the UEFA Champions League as part of a famous treble during his debut season.
In connection with an ongoing investigation into payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, Spanish police raided the Catalan team’s premises. The club is now facing corruption allegations and faces the possibility of being kicked out of the UEFA Champions League.
Negreira, a former vice-president of the Spanish Football Federation’s refereeing committee, is alleged to have received ÂŁ7.4 million from Barcelona between 2001 and 2018
The La Liga team denies any wrongdoing, but it is claimed that over the course of nearly two decades, they bribed Negreira in exchange for favorable refereeing rulings.
In a significant addition to the ongoing probe, The Daily Mail reports that current Barcelona president Joan Laporta and two former club presidents may be tried for bribery.
During a news conference before the game on Friday at the City Football Academy, Guardiola, who oversaw Barcelona for a time during the probe, made some observations about the reports coming out of Spain.
“Wait and see, let the legal system and the process work. So far, based on what I’ve heard, read, and not seen, Barcelona hasn’t really, really, really paid a referee to get an advantage. That was not something I saw or read.
“I want to think things over before expressing my views. We’ll see how Barcelona defends what needs to be done.
“I’m fairly certain that when Barcelona won, it was because they were superior to their opponents. Currently, in our day, I am rather convinced of that.
“Justice will determine what really happened, but we won because we were significantly better than our competitors, and when they weren’t, they didn’t win, they lost.”
