The scandal surrounding Barcelona and the payment of 1.7 million euros to Enríquez Negreira between 2016 and 2018, when he was vice president of the Technical Commission of Referees of the Spanish Football Federation to provide the club with technical reports on the judges of the matches of the Catalans, will have no sporting consequences for the Catalan club.
The guarantee was given this Thursday by Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish League, and is justified by the fact that the alleged violation has already passed. “It is not possible that there are disciplinary sanctions against Barcelona. Five years have passed and these kinds of sanctions expire after three years. In sporting terms, that is not possible, but in criminal terms, perhaps. Let’s see how the investigation ends.” , but it is clear that these things should not happen in Spanish football, neither ethically nor aesthetically,” the official said.
Josep Maria Bartomeu, president of Barcelona at the height of the facts, has already come to deny any kind of illegality. “It is absolutely wrong and absurd to think that we bought referees. If that were true, on the last day against Atlético they would not have canceled us a goal that won us the title. It is absurd to say that” , he referred to the newspaper La Vanguard.
Bartomeu admitted that payments by Barcelona in exchange for information about the referees are normal in the football world, and that they were asked by the technical teams to have more information and pass it on to the players, but that at no point did they want to twisting the sporting truth.
According to El Mundo newspaper, José María Enríquez Negreira received nearly €1.7 million from Barcelona in monthly installments and through Dasnil 95, a company he owns and where his son is also a director.
Old practice in the club
The case is being investigated by the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office and will have its origins in an investigation by the Tax Office into the company Dasnil, owned by former referee José María Enríquez Negreira and former Vice-President of the Technical Commission of Arbitrators. These cash deliveries took place during the presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu, but according to other Spanish media, they are said to have been the practice of the club for two decades, striking the directors of Joan Gaspart, Joan Laporta and Sandro Rosell.
Barcelona admitted in a statement, which does not confirm the figures, that it had hired “the services of an external technical advisor” who provided material on young players and that the “relationship was expanded to include technical reports related to professional arbitration to complement the information that was needed by the technical staff”. Negreira, on the other hand, stated that his job was just verbal advice to football players, explaining to them what kind of behavior they should have towards each referee.
Speaking to Radio Marca, Juan Gaspart, president of Barcelona between 2000 and 2003, also commented on this controversy: “Why are the reports linked to a former referee? They have that right. They can think right or wrong. I think right and I believe that Barcelona did not do anything illegal. Barça won the championships because they were the best. Negreira had no influence on the choice of referees. All teams in Spain are advised about referees, that is normal. Barcelona won because of the referees? And Messi was crippled, wasn’t he?”.
Source: DN
