Barcelona scandal, 1.4 million paid to the former vice president of the referees – Corriere.it

Barcelona in trouble
. The Catalan club, first in La Liga with 11 points ahead of Real Madrid, for three years, between 2016 and 2018, he would have paid almost 1.4 million euros to a private company attributable to Jos Mara Enrquez Negreira, who was the vice chairman of the Technical Referee Committee at the time. This was confirmed by Negreira, referee for 13 seasons in La Liga, then director of the Catalan arbitration board, while denying favorable treatment towards the blaugrana.

The case, pulled out of the radio Cadena Serwhich came to light after an inspection by the tax agency of Negreira’s company, Dasnil 95 Sl, from which it emerged as Barcelona paid in three tranches a total of almost 1.4 million euros (1,392,680 euros), divided between 2016 (532,728.02 euros), 2017 (541,752) and 2018 (318,200). Payments which, according to the report of the Spanish revenue agency, would have the following motivation: Barcelona wanted to make sure that no arbitration decisions were made against him, that is, that everything was neutral.

In Spain newspapers close to Real Madrid already define the story asthe biggest scandal in Spanish football
. Barcelona does not deny the payments, but defends itself by speaking of a regular employment relationship. The Blaugrana club would have requested, and received, technical reports on the refereeing from an external consultant professional in order to integrate information requested by the technical staff of the first team and B, a common practice in professional clubs. Reports that in the past, always via video, were also provided on players of lower categories for the technical secretariat. The club adds that it could present the documents in court if necessary. Yet the report from the revenue agency specifies that no document was provided to testify to the existence of a commercial relationship between Barcelona and Negreira’s company.

EL MAYOR ESCNDALO DEL FTBOL ESPAOL.

El FC Barcelona pays 1,4 millones de ? a una empresa de Jos Mara Enrquez Negreira, former vice president of the Comit de rbitros between 2016-2018.

? Ejerca el cargo mientras cobraba.

? Realize informes on the colegiados that he leads. pic.twitter.com/xEIzKLh0r6

— Madrid Sports (@MadridSports_) February 15, 2023

Negreira that, a Cadena Serconfirms the Blaugrana’s version and assures that there has never been favorable treatment for Barcelona. The payments, for which he did not provide an invoice, were due to consultancy work. Translated: he explained to the Barcelona players how to behave during meetings with the referees and what they could do depending on who was in charge of the individual matches.