Joan Laporta said that he does not want to be a judge, but that someone should investigate how the previous administration of Barcelona under the leadership of Josep Maria Bartomeu operated. At an exciting press conference, Laporta only hinted that the club was destroyed by the previous club president but he did not provide details. That is why the respectable El Mundo did it, who began to unravel the tangle of claims about suspicious actions when bringing Antoine Griezmann to Camp Nou.The Frenchman, who returned to Atletico last summer, arrived in Barça in 2019, but it has now been revealed that the first contacts were established in 2017. The problem is that Blaugrana did not initially negotiate with Atletico Madrid, but with a crime acts lawyer named Jose Angel Gonzalez.Sun 23:00: (5.00) Espanyol (3.70) Barcelona (1.80)This is shown in the emails discovered by the company Krol – Laporta hired them to do an analysis of previous management business moves.The problem is that no one in the club knows exactly what the role of the mentioned lawyer was, who – let us emphasize once again – is a lawyer who deals with criminal acts, not football. However, the lawyer eventually convinced Griezmann to sign a contract that guarantees Gonzalez Franco a five percent commission on the value of the transfer. Five percent of 137 million USD equals close to 7 million USD. Gonzalez Franco should have received another circa 3 million USD through some ‘bonuses’.Barca agree a big deal with Spotify, but CEO resignsIt is unclear where Gonzalez Franco came from in the whole story, because Griezmann’s representative is his sister Maud Griezmann, and they also have their own lawyer, Sevan Karian. Barça was represented by Oscar Grau, the director at the time. It is not clear to anyone why Gonzalez Franco received the mentioned 9.5 million USD.Although it is suspected that it is one of those on-the-down-low moves when clubs “invent” an intermediary party to save some money for their own needs.The Griezmans were not very modest either, Antoan’s sister asked for a bonus of 45 million USD just to speed up the process?! However, there is no indication that they really paid her that much money.17.02. Thu 20:45: (1.90) Barcelona (3.50) Napoli (4.10)El Mundo reminds that they were so angry at Atletico because Barça went into action even before they contacted the Madrid club that at one point they asked for an additional 90 million USD in compensation since that was the buyout clause at the moment when Blaugrana started recruiting Griezmann. Later, it only dropped to the mentioned 137 million USD.Griezmann finally arrived to Barcelona, been there for two years, not contributing much, then returned to Madrid on loan for 11 million USD with the option to extend it for another season, and then buy him back. For 45 million USD?! It is clear how much Barcelona lost, which is why Laporta publicly said that Griezmann-deal was a failure, while the then manager Ronald Koeman labeled the player – a burden.
