The cause for Bartomeu's arrest: Understanding the "Barçagate Scandal"

                                          

Ex Catalan's Club president Josep M Bartomeu has been arrested over alleged corruption case in the club. In an operation lead by the catalan financial crimes unit, the catalan police nonetheless denied to reveal the number of members currently arrested during the raid at Barça's headquarter.

 

BarçaGate: The case alleges that the former president Bartomeu hired the Uruguayan social media company I3 Ventures, with the aim of creating fake accounts to denigrate in public sites some of the club's member which opposed his decisions, people such as Carles Puyol, Leo Messi, Augusti Benedeto, Victor Font even Xavi  Hernández and Pep Guardiola although these are no longer part of the club.

After this program was exposed in the begining of the year 2020 by Cadena Ser, it lead into the deployment of 6 Barça's board members. Files leaked to El Mundo that Josep M Bartomeu financed the Uruguyan company 6 times the going rate for social media campaigns, and that the former president had as well some profits from the deal. After continous denials of these allegations by the club, Batomeu's arrest took place 6 days befeore the club's presidential elections.

The BarçaGate scandal is insane. It's largely flown under the radar recently because of the Messi saga, but it's a big part of the motion of no confidence against Bartomeu. A quick explainer: pic.twitter.com/gvVoTqAQPw

— total Barça (@totalBarca) September 6, 2020