Barcelona are once again embroiled in controversy after being accused of bribing match officials, opening up a fresh bag of worms. Spanish prosecutors have officially filed bribery allegations against the Catalan side over payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, former vice president of the Spanish Football Referees' Association.
Negreira's firm, DASNIL 95 SL, received payments beginning in 2003 and continuing through 2018. During that time, he received payments totaling €1.4 million. A tax audit was the first spark that set off the inquiry.
According to El Pais, Negreira said to the Spanish tax office that Barcelona's motivation for the payments was to ensure that "impartial" referees officiated their games. From 1977 to 1992, Negreira officiated Spanish soccer matches. He then served as vice president of the referees' committee from 2002 until 2018, when he was defeated in the election for the position.
What are Barcelona being charged with?
The lawsuit says that Barcelona's previous presidents, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, helped negotiators strike a "secret verbal arrangement" with the now 78-year-old Negreira in which the club would pay him €2.9 million between 2014 and 2018. The suit claims that the club, Rosell, Bartomeu, Negreira, and two other ex-Blaurgana executives committed sports corruption, unfair administration, and falsification of commercial papers.
According to the paperwork, Negreira was hired as an 'external consultant' who was paid to provide reports 'relevant to professional refereeing'. It is stated explicitly in the allegations that the Camp Nou side used bribery in order to, in return for money, motivate acts and refereeing judgments likely to favor them in La Liga games.
Current Barcelona president Joan Laporta said they will conduct an internal inquiry into the payments, which prompted a statement from 18 of the 20 La Liga teams expressing "great concern" about the situation. A confirmation of this would make the scandal much more serious than the Italian Calciopoli trial, which resulted in relegation for Juventus and points deductions for numerous other teams, including Milan, Lazio, and Fiorentina.
