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Former FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu was arrested Monday in reference to “Barcagate,” the scandal wherein the membership allegedly paid a third-party advertising and marketing agency to defame its personal gamers on social media.
Catalan police raided Barcelona’s offices on Monday morning as a part of a contemporary investigation into accusations of a smear marketing campaign, which allegedly focused Lionel Messi and others.
Barcelona said in a statement Monday that it has “supplied up [its] full collaboration to the authorized and police authorities to assist clarify details that are topic to investigation.”
After seizing paperwork from Barca’s places of work, police then reportedly arrested Bartomeu and not less than three others: membership CEO Oscar Grau, former presidential adviser Jaume Masferrer, and chief authorized counsel Roman Gomez Ponti.
What’s the ‘Barcagate’ scandal?
Round a 12 months in the past, a patchwork path of proof led to allegations that Barcelona officers had paid I3 Ventures, a neighborhood PR consultancy, to disparage gamers and others who had been vital of membership management. Social media accounts had been allegedly created or weaponized to tarnish the reputations of outstanding figures akin to Messi and Gerard Pique.
The scandal erupted as these in and across the membership sparred over who was liable for Barcelona’s decline. On the sphere, final season, the group slumped to its worst league end since 2007-08, and did not win a single main trophy. Off the sphere, the club is more than a billion euros in debt.
Bartomeu was thought of mainly liable for that decline, and for ruining the club’s relationship with Messi. Messi, who has spent his total profession with Barca, requested forcefully to go away the membership this previous summer season. He had been a goal of some social media posts, as had Pique, a veteran defender, who referred to as the alleged smear marketing campaign “outrageous.”
Is Barcelona responsible?
An unbiased audit carried out final 12 months didn’t discover conclusive proof of wrongdoing. Police, nevertheless, are digging in additional. They first raided Barca’s places of work final June. Monday’s raid seems to be essentially the most important but.
Bartomeu, meanwhile, has since resigned, together with the remainder of the membership’s board in October. The presidential election to search out his successor will happen later this week.
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