Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta has used the club’s Christmas party as an excuse to attack Real Madrid after their rivals continued to focus on the Negreira case.

The Negreira case focuses on the discovery of payments made from 2001 to 2018 to the company of José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee.

Documents show the Camp Nou club paid €7.3m over the 17-year period which coincided with the most successful time in Barcelona’s history.

Prosecutors in Spain are investigating the case while UEFA launched its own inquiry into the matter which could result in a ban from European football.

Earlier this month, Laporta who was president from 2003 to 2010, gave evidence as a witness but denied any wrongdoing.

Madrid’s president Florentino Perez has put increased focus on the case and Laporta has now gone on the offensive.

Earlier this week, he claimed the club’s long rivals suffered from “acute Barcelonaitis” and has now used a Christmas party to launch a further attack.

“I have to say that this dimension that we have reached also generates envy,” he said. “And that these are managed very badly by those who, using bad arts, break all codes of conduct, ethical and moral, and not only sporting ones.

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“I suppose you know who I am referring to: those who are the architects of permanent smear campaigns against our shield and our essences. And we are not going to allow this.”

Laporta, who is in his second stint as president after being re-elected in 2021, continued his tirade and went on to suggested Madrid “vomit lies.”

“They are the same ones who confuse power with unenlightened despotism; those who practice cynicism and excessive arrogance; those who have a piece of television from which they vomit lies and intoxicate constantly and permanently.”

After giving evidence, Laporta insisted that the club did not need “favours” as it was “admired worldwide.”

“We paid for reports, never to favour Barca,” he told Sport. “At that time, Barca was admired worldwide. An example and a benchmark in football. We didn’t need any favours.

“In fact, I don’t know Negreira or anyone from his circle. I’ve never had any contact with them. I inherited those payments, I asked the sporting director, and they told us to proceed with the reports. We don’t have reports from my first period because they are destroyed every five years.”

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