The stars of Barcelona shine at full strength again, but a dark cloud above the Camp Nou creates a turbulent atmosphere. The club stumbles over 1.4 million euros: the amount that Barça transferred to the second referee boss between 2016 and 2018. The story of advisory reports that wrap Barcelona in a corruption scandal.
Jose Maria Negreira and Josep Maria Bartomeu. The near-namesakes danced a tango on the brink of corruption for years.
Negreira received about 1.4 million euros in three seasons in exchange for “advice” to the then Barcelona chairman.
The product the Vice President of the Referees Committee was selling? “Reports”, says journalist Michael Van Vaerenbergh, host of a podcast about Spanish football. “So that players knew which ref they could talk to and when time wasting was not an option.”
The trade relationship between the two gentlemen was not kosher, nor was it loving. When the payments stopped in 2018, Negreira threatened through a famous Burofax make their deal “full of irregularities” public.”
That did not happen, five years later the bomb bursts in the Camp Nou. With Negreira as collateral damage.
Jose Negreira himself was a referee in his younger days.
Spain in turmoil
“Typical that the Spanish press comes with this news, when Barcelona is sportingly high again”, Joan Laporta sighs.
The current Barça chairman is not pleased with the corruption scandal hovering over his club. Yet he too is under fire.
According to Marca, Negreira received an extra penny from the Catalan club fund from 2001 onwards. “It would be more than half a million euros when Guardiola took the Treble,” Van Vaerenbergh shares.
The club will take legal action against those who want to damage the image of the club.
The fact that not only Bartomeu – who is not his test piece in investigations into corruption – but also Laporta is mentioned in the case, causes ridicule in Spain.
In the media, the strongman of Barcelona gets a hard time in opinion pieces. He also has to accept cartoons, where he enlists the help of a “European referee committee” to beat Manchester United.
However, the club maintains that it was “normal practice”. “Barcelona will take legal action against those who want to damage the image of the club with this information,” it sounds.
Barça therefore seems confident, our connoisseur just a little less. “The painful thing for Barca is mainly the fact that it was a lot of money over a very long period.”
And so Barcelona may soon prepare for an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service. Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish league, also opens a manhunt for possible corruption.
“Tebas wants to check whether Negreira had any influence within the referee committee on appointing refs for certain matches,” says Van Vaerenbergh.
Outlaw or severe punishment?
A sporting punishment such as Juventus, financial sanctions or exclusion: what awaits the Catalan superpower?
“You can say that Barcelona is not in danger of sporting sanctions, because the facts are time-barred”, is option 1 according to Van Vaerenbergh.
“The club can thank Article 112 of the new sports law in Spain for that. It states that there is a three-year statute of limitations. The last payment dates from 4.5 years ago.”
If there is evidence of match fixing, Barcelona can be severely punished.
Laporta already chirps when he hears that news, but he is not (yet) outlawed.
“If the Public Prosecution Service finds evidence of match fixing on the basis of those payments, Barcelona can still be severely punished”, Van Vaerenbergh explains option 2.
Then the civil court comes into action. “And we have left for lengthy processes that drag on for years. For the time being there is no concrete evidence.”
Can Barcelona still escape the dance?
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