Gaspart testified as a witness before the judge investigating payments made by the club to José María Enríquez Negreira. The former executive categorically denied bribing referees and was also critical of Real Madrid 's actions and accusations in the case.
Gaspart, who was president of Barcelona between 2000 and 2003, was summoned to clarify the receipt of more than €7m that the former vice-president of the CTA (Technical Committee of Referees) received from the Catalan club between 2001 and 2018, payments that the Prosecutor's Office suspects are linked to a sports corruption scheme.
The former president defended the actions of all the Barca presidents and executives involved and was critical of Real Madrid's reaction to the case.
"I think they are unwittingly doing a lot of damage to football, a lot. Not just to Barça , but to football itself," he said in his statement at Barcelona's Court of Instruction Number 1.
Gaspart also commented, upon leaving the courthouse after giving his statement, on the accusations of referee bribery that underpin the Negreira case: "It's a lie. And I've repeated the word 'lie' 33 times. Barcelona has never, neither during my time as vice president nor as president, bribed referees, and I've vouched for Messrs Laporta, Bartomeu, Rosell, and all the Barça executives.
"I've stated this with absolute clarity, until the judge herself agreed with me and told me that I had already said it several times. But I wanted to repeat it. The accusation against Barça, that they committed any illegal act, is false. Paying someone to tell the referee to pay the referee so that my Barcelona wins is a lie, and when it's a lie, it's a lie."
Gaspart also became very offended when questioned about whether he had ever bribed a referee: "If you offend me again, I'll throw the microphone at you. Barça has never, since Mr. Gamper founded it , until the day I die, because after that I won't be around and I won't be able to say so, committed an illegal act.
"And bribing a referee to favour you is illegal. I don't understand why they want people to believe that."