Ex Barca President Bartomeu released

Former FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu was released on bail after spending Monday night in the cells and appearing on court on Tuesday morning to face changes of irregular administration and corruption, reported Xinhua.

Both Bartomeu and his advisor, Jaume Masferrer used their right not to give testimony in their brief appearance at Barcelona's 'City of Justice'.

The pair were arrested on Monday as part of the investigations into a case which has become known as 'Barcagate.'

This investigation has been ongoing since July 2020 to investigate the payment of around a million euros to a company named 'Venture 13' to launch social media attacks on opponents of Bartameu and his board of directors.

It has been alleged that the payments to Venture 13 (which are around six times the market rate) were split into smaller amounts in order to avoid Barcelona's internal accounting controls.

Bartomeu replaced Sandro Rosell as Barca president in January 2014 and resigned in October 2020 in the face of increasing opposition to his management of the club. The elections to hold a new president will be held this weekend.

When asked about the affair in his press conference on the eve of Wednesday's Copa del Rey semifinal return leg at home to Sevilla, Barca coach, Ronald Koeman said he had been "upset," because "Bartomeu has always been exceptional towards me."

However, he admitted "it isn't a good image for the club, but we will have to see what happens, meanwhile we have to concentrate on tomorrow's match," he commented.