Barcelona Spokesperson Says Club Expects To Receive Guarantee After Supreme Court Ruling

Barcelona spokesperson Toni Freixa gave the club's stance on the Supreme Court's decision to oblige former President Joan Laporta and seven directors to present guarantees to cover more than €23M ($31M) in losses for the '02-03 season. Freixa said, "It’s a clear sentence and the decision is unquestionable. It clarifies for once and for all the mandate of the previous board. We expect that we will receive the guarantee, because we live in a society which respects the law. The sentence orders the accused to guarantee the debt -- not to pay it off." He added, "We are waiting for the club member who made the original charges to ask for the sentence to be carried out. We won’t rule out getting a guarantee which the law has provided." Under Spanish law, the sentence will only be carried out if the person who brought the original accusation wishes for it to be so (FC Barcelona).