‘Barçagate’: The Mossos include payments to journalists during the Bartomeu era

According to the EFE agency, that Mossos report attached to the summary of the case states that “some journalists received money from the club itself by order of Bartomeu”, the former president of Barça, and that “he himself also intervened directly so that FC Barcelona formalized contracts with these people”. In the aforementioned report, the Mossos assure that they “forging invoices to divert money to the journalists chosen by Bartomeu”.Yespoints to the company Amalgam marketingled by Miquel Sambola, who worked on Bartomeu’s election campaign in 2015

Now, according to Barcelona’s ‘Cadena SER’, a Mossos report appended to the summary of the case known as ‘Barçagate’ stipulates that the club, led by Josep María Bartomeu, paid journalists. They were paid through outside companies and in fictional drafts, according to the aforementioned station. According to EFE, the report includes conversations found in the technological devices of those investigated in the ‘Barçagate’ case in which several journalists, according to the Mossos, “acknowledge defending Bartomeu’s interests and attacking rivals, such as Joan Laporta ( the current president) and Víctor Font (candidate in the last election)”. For example, in that report, the police assures that “these are indirect payments that the club would pay through third-party companies (pre-transfer) to promote Bartomeu’s digital reputation and attack its rivals,” explains Agencia EFE.

This was Barça de Bartomeu’s relationship with the media

In February 2002, GOAL already explained in detail how Josep Maria Bartomeu’s FC Barcelona relationship was with the media. Bartomeu signed several cooperation agreements with the media of Catalonia, both on the radio and in the written press and television. The relationship with the media has never been the great strength of a club like Barça, especially in times when they worked with communication managers who are not very nice to journalists, although has never stopped financial or exchange contracts with the Catalan media.

As GOAL reported in February 2002 through Adrià Soldevila, the relationship was based on agreements with radio, television and digital media. In fact, the major radios have them. “RAC1”, “Cadena SER”, “Onda Cero” and “Cadena COPE” have signed their corresponding advertising exchanges with Barcelona, ​​worth between 95,000 and 20,000 euros. What does ad exchange mean? The club advertises on the network in exchange for tickets to matches, invitations to a tour of the stadium or jerseys to raffle among his audience. And all that stuff is valued at a quantity. For example, the value of the exchange for “Cadena SER” is 42,600 euros, a match similar to that of “Onda Cero” (42,000), higher than “COPE” (22,500) and much lower than that of “RAC1” (95,000).which has almost twice as many audiences. The radios receive no moneybut they did value Barça products and services on these numbers.

There is an exception in the radio part: “Radio Channel Barcelona” (RKB), a local radio with no official ratings. However, the club did not sign the contract with the station, but with the journalist Marçal Lorente, director of the program ‘Without Concessions’. So much so that a clause specifies that “this contract shall remain in effect even in the event that the program ‘Without Concessions’ produced by the production company is broadcast in a media channel other than the current one or at a time other than the current one”. A contract with an initial term of six yearsfrom September 2015 to June 2021 (Bartomeu’s term), and with an economic contract of 50,000 euros per year for advertising inserts. In this case there is no exchange, but the club has paid that amount to the company Tantimer 21 SL, owned by Lorente. In July 2020, even with a year to go until completion, The contract was extended until June 2022 with an increase in the amount paid: 70,000 euros per year. In June 2021, under the management of Joan Laporta, this contract was terminated.

Relationship with paper media

As far as contracts with paper media are concerned, agreements with “Mundo Deportivo”, “Sport”, “La Vanguardia” and “El Periódico”the most widely distributed media in Catalonia, with annual payments in the fork of between 175,000 and 50,000 euros. In the top split are the sports papers, which are most consumed by the social masses, while at the bottom of that split are the general papers. The newspaper “ARA” It also had an ad exchange deal with Barcelona a few years ago, although that deal has now expired.

Relationship with digital media

Some digital media also have or have had economic cooperation with Barça. Whoever has it left is the group Crónica Global Media, in a contract signed in 2018, extended in summer 2020 and expiring in June 2022. In this contract, there are two agreements: one, for one advertising grant worth 25,000 euros with the group’s sports newspaper, “Culemania”. And the second agreement, of 35,000 euros per year to the Crónica Global Media group for advertising, with the exception of the first season (2018-19), in which the contract was for 45,000 euros. In the digital media section, “El Triangle” and “Diario Gol” They also had contracts with Barcelona during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons for “distribution of advertising messages”. In case of “El Triangle”, the deal was 8,000 euros per season, while with the “Diario Gol” cost 20,000 euros per course. These contracts are no longer in force since the end of 2018.

Relationship with televisions

The agreement with the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Mitjans (CCMA)the public media group they are in “TV3” and “Catalunya Radio”. The ad exchange agreement with the CCMA it was canceled in 2017 following an investigation into the Seient Lliure (Free Seat) of the Camp Nou televised broadcast and which ended with Barça breaking off relations with the chain, Bartomeu’s executive sources say.

The only television program that has an agreement with Barcelona is ‘Rondeando’, presented by journalist Albert Lesán on “8TV”, the private television of the Godó Group. The contract for two seasons (2020-21 and 2021-22), at a rate of 20,000 euros per yearwas signed by the club with production company Free Numbers who edited the program during the 20-21 season ‘El Curubito’ in “Teve.cat”. With the change of chain and program name, the contract was upheld.

audiovisual product

In recent years, Barcelona has also commissioned the editing of various audiovisual documents from renowned production companies. participated Productions El Barrio, by Jordi Évolefor the production of the documentary about the first men’s team titled ‘Match day’ and broadcast on Rakuten TV; of Absolute minority for the preparation of two historical documentaries, one about the former president Joseph Sunol and another about the life of Ana Maria Martinez Sagi, the club’s first directive; and a third with triacomin which the Espai Barca works led by the journalist and writer Xavier Bosch.