Barcelona might be in first place in LaLiga but that may not amount to much, the club is involved in a shady situation as it has been reported that Barcelona made €7 million in payments to a company owned by the former vice president of the refereeing committee between 2001 and 2018. The purposes of those payments have yet to be clarified.
Former Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, along with ex-referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the owner of the company, are on the list of defendants in the fraud case. Barcelona has stated that the payments were for “technical reports on refereeing."
Still while winning their game 1-0 against Athletic Bilbao, many of the supporters for Bilbao called for the immediate relegation of Barcelona and brought banners that read “Mafia $”. If found guilty of any wrongdoing Barcelona could face being relegated, here are other big clubs that went down for off the field issues.
Off field relegated clubs
Maybe the biggest case of relegation for wrongdoing was Juventus in 2006, when it was found out that the team was pressuring referees to show favoritism in their respective matches. The club was relegated to Serie B and while they recaptured their status as Italy’s biggest club the damage to their reputation was done.
Rangers of Scotland had to go down all the way to the fourth division after the storied club had to fold due to financial mismanagement. Back in the topflight Rangers continue to be one of Scotland’s most dominant clubs.
In 1993 French club Marseille tried to bribe the Valenciennes squad ahead of their Champions League match to underperform. When one of the players came forward the club was relegated due to the shady practice.
Boavista was relegated due to charges of bribery and referee coercion, the Portuguese club did not learn their lesson and were again caught in 2009 and were again relegated to the second division.
