When prosecutors filed charges last week, Spanish courts have agreed to look into claims of “continuous sporting corruption” against Barcelona.
José Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice president of the referees committee, has been charged with receiving bribes from Barcelona in return for information concerning match officials and possible appointments.
Negreira, a former La Liga official himself, is said to have exchanged thorough reports and video analysis for over €7 million from Barça between 2001 and 2018.
Despite the fact that Barcelona’s current president, Joan Laporta, has insisted that the club did nothing wrong when it requested “technical reports about referees,” allegations made by prosecutors on Friday accuse former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu of having a deal with Negreira in which they received a payment which he “would carry out actions aimed at favouring Barça in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club and thus in the results of the competitions.”
According to reports from Spain, there may not be sufficient supporting evidence for this particular accusation.
However, La Liga president Javier Tebas has already stated that Barcelona cannot face a sporting sanction on home soil as the charges are beyond the three year threshold in which clubs can be held accountable for such irregularities. Other reports claim Barcelona could be disqualified from participating in the UEFA Champions League next season on these grounds.
