Barcelona president exonerated! Joan Laporta will not face criminal prosecution in Negreira referee scandal - but bad news for former chief Sandro Rosell

According to Marca, the Catalan club received positive news this week after Laporta was cleared from claims he and his board made payments to the former vice president of theTechnical Committee of Referees (CTA), Jose María Enriquez Negreira, between 2008 and 2010.

While it was good news for Laporta, the same cannot be said for Sandro Rosell. The former Barcelona president, who was in charge from 2010 to 2014, saw his appeal rejected by the court. He will now remain implicated for the alleged payments that were received, along with former presidents Maria Bartomeu, Oscar Grau and Albert Soler.

Barcelona are yet to comment on the decision regarding Laporta but did release the following statement on the matter last week: "FCB is satisfied with today’s ruling by the Barcelona High Court insofar as it confirms the approach defended by the Club and rules out the hypothesis of the alleged crime of bribery. We maintain our conviction that through the courts we will be able to definitively clarify the facts that are the subject of the complaint and prove the Club’s absolute innocence.”

Laporta will now continue his work as president, as he aims to make Barcelona competitive within Spain and Europe once again. He reiterated on several different occasions that 'Barcelona had not committed any crimes' during the process.