Barcelona in the storm: “He paid 1.4 million to the vice-president of referees”

Barcelona ends up in the storm again. For three years, between 2016 and 2018, the Spanish club would have paid almost 1.4 million euros to a private company referable to José María Enríquez Negreira, who at the time was the vice president of the Technical Committee of Spanish referees . This was confirmed by Negreira himself, who was a referee for 13 seasons in the Spanish top category and then became director of the Catalan refereeing board. The news was revealed by Ser Catalunya radio. The reaction of the president of Barcelona Joan Laporta lasts, who said that it is no coincidence that this type of information comes out now that the team is doing well. The president is on the same line as the Blaugrana club which has not denied that this type of relationship existed but wanted to specify its nature, explaining that he has received the requested arbitration reports and can present them at any time before a court: in short, he insisted that the paid work was done, trying to debunk the corruption charge.

«Given the information that has appeared, it must be said that Barcelona, ​​in the past, made use of the services of an external consultant for technical reports on lower-category players in the Spanish state. Furthermore, this same consultant has provided referee consultancy, which is very normal in big clubs, in fact today we have this role integrated into the organization chart and it is assigned to the football area, with all normality », explained Laporta. Furthermore, the president warned that Barcelona reserves all legal action. «The news draws attention and it is no coincidence that it comes out now. On the part of Barcelona, ​​​​any specious, tendentious interpretation that insinuates things that are not, will receive the proportionate and adequate response from the club. We reserve all actions that are necessary to defend the honor and interests of Barcelona,” said Laporta.