Barcelona has been charged with corruption charges made against Jose Maria Negreira over the years. The public prosecutor’s office announced on Friday that Spanish authorities had filed a charge against Barcelona and two of the LaLiga club’s ex-presidents for alleged payments to a company run by the senior officiating official to influence match results. Between 2001 and 2018, the club allegedly paid approximately €7.3 million (£6.4 million) to corporations owned by Enriquez Negreira, who was president of the Spanish Football Association from 1993 to 2018. Prosecutors believe that, in exchange for money, Negreira favored Barcelona “in the decisions taken by referees in the club’s games, as well as in the results of the competitions” under a secret arrangement.
A senior Barcelona official told Reuters that the club had anticipated the accusation, but that it was ‘nothing more than an absolutely preliminary investigative hypothesis’ from the prosecutors, and that ‘this is when the court process properly begins.’ The official went on to say that ‘the club would fully cooperate with the investigation in any way necessary’ and that ‘they have never bought a referee or attempted to influence any official’s judgments.’ The club denied wrongdoing in a statement last month, stating they had simply paid an external consultant that furnished them with ‘technical reports relevant to professional officiating’, calling it ‘a typical practice among professional football clubs’.
The complaint focuses on the €2.9m paid between 2014 and 2018, alleging that Barcelona reached a ‘secret verbal agreement’ with Negreira with the help of former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. It charges Barcelona, Rosell, Bartomeu, Jose Maria Negreira, and two other former Barcelona officials with sports corruption, unfair administration, and falsification of commercial records. A tax examination prompted the probe. According to El Pais, Negreira informed the Spanish tax agency that Barcelona’s purpose with the payments was to have ‘impartial’ referees in their games.
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