The case involving Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira and FC Barcelona has taken a huge turn with the Spanish authorities charging the club with paying Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira for refereeing information during an 18-year period. The official charge is “active bribery” and already it has sent shockwaves in UEFA who could expel Barcelona from the Champions League this season.
The police in Spain also raided the offices of the Referee’s committee, while no arrests were made the police were acting on request from the prosecutor’s office. Barcelona allegedly paid former referee chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira for aid in preferential treatment, including getting reports and videos of referees and their behaviors during matches.
The Barcelona brass have tried to shrug off the payments as nothing more than analytics information but digging deeper there is a huge breach of trust among the other clubs and conflicts of interest that information that would be helpful for the Referee’s committee ended up in the hands of a club in LaLiga looking to exploit various patterns.
What do the charges mean for Barcelona?
In a statement issued by the Spanish authorities, the “information gathering” done by Barcelona is condemning, the statement read, “FC Barcelona paid through intermediary companies to one of the three vice-presidents of the Technical Committee of Referees integrated into the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Fact not denied and documented. EN [Enriquez Negreira] had the status of public official for criminal purposes given that he carried out public functions as vice-president of the CTA, those related to the qualifications of referees and the promotion and demotion of referees among others.
“The payment by FC Barcelona to EN or his son ER can be considered made based on the position held by the former, since the payments continued for approximately 18 years, increasing from the initial €70,000 to €700,000 annually; FC Barcelona ceased payment as soon as EN ceased as vice-president of the CTA.”
Barcelona also faces charges of corruption, misleading accounting, and breach of trust, UEFA is also conducting their own investigation and have allowed Barcelona to play in this season’s Champions League, but back in June, European soccer’s governing body withheld the right to expel the club if they or the Spanish authorities found any wrongdoing.