Barcelona have immediately responded to the accusations of irregular practices at board level and have threatened legal action against former vice-president Emili Rousaud after he gave an interview saying he thinks “someone has had their hand in the till” at the Camp Nou.
Rousand had subsequently spoken to RAC1 after news had leaked out that he was one of six board members to resign from the club on Thursday.
Five other directors, Enrique Tombas, Silvio Elias, Maria Teixidor, Josep Pont and Jordi Clasamigli, have also stepped down with their joint resignation letter reportedly outlining, among other issues, their “disillusion over the unfortunate social media episode, known as ‘Barcagate’, of which we found out through the press.”
Rousand’s strongly-worded interview to RAC 1 has elicited an immediate response from the Blaugrana giants.
“In the light of the serious and unfounded accusations made this morning by Mr. Emili Rousaud, ex institutional vice president at the Club, in different interviews with the media, FC Barcelona categorically denies any activity that can be described as corruption, therefore, reserves the right to any legal action that may correspond.”
“As such, the anaylis of the monitoring service for social networks is currently the subject of a wide-ranging independent report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) which is still being carried out and as a result is yet to reach any conclusions and with the Club having provided all the relevant information requested by PWC since the start of the process.”
“Finally, the resignations of the members of the Board of Directors announced over the last few hours have come about due to a reorganisation of the Board put forward by president Josep Maria Bartomeu and which will be completed in the next few days.”
The statement follows right in the wake of another incendiary week for Barcelona fraught with tensions in the midst of a major reorganisation of the Board of Directors, not to mention the crippling effects of the coronavirus pandemic which has greatly undermined the financial stability of the club.