Former FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu arrested for involvement in Barcagate scandal

Josep Maria Bartomeu

Yesterday the Catalonian Police carried out an investigation and raided the offices of FC Barcelona at Camp Nou regarding the "Barcagate" scandal and later arrested former president Josep Maria Bartomeu for his connections in the matter.

Bartomeu had been in the spotlight during the summer transfer season when club Legend Lionel Messi made his intentions clear that he wanted to walk away from the club. For all his hard work and contribution for the club, Messi's contract allowed him to leave for free in any season. However Bartomeu stated that Messi's release clause was only active till July 10 and now any club who would like to sign him would have to pay out the release clause price of €700 million which was impossible for any club without breaching FFP rules.

He along with his board would eventually step down from the office on October 27,2020 but the damage was already done. At the moment Barcelona are facing Bankruptcy and are eyeing for the new Presidental Elections to be concluded as soon as possible. It has been reported that on March 7,2021 the club through polling would announce it's new President.

So the question is what lead to the Arrest of Bartomeu and what is "Barcagate"?

According to the reports emerging from Spain, Bartomeu was the mastermind in a major plan to defame the club. He hired a company called I3Ventures to create a number of fake profiles on social media to spread positive messages towards the Barcelona Board and slander out those who had spoken against the board including the likes of Gerrard Pique and Lionel Messi.

Well that's not the only wrong deed he committed. He is also accused of Corruption and Money Laundering by spitting the contract with I3Ventures to avoid detection in the clubs account. 

The company was reportedly paid around €1 million per season but the deal was split into small contracts of €200,000 small enough to go undetected. In short Bartomeu used the club's own money to defame them.

Alongside him, the police have also arrested general manager Oscar Grau and the man incharge of Barcelona's legal dealings Roman Gomez Ponti.

Bartomeu is now the third Barcelona President to be arrested after Josep Nunez was arrested for bribing tax inspectors and Sandro Rosell for money laundering.