DFC Barcelona is said to have paid the former vice-president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish Football Association, José María Enríquez Negreira, between 2016 and 2018, 1.4 million euros. According to reports from several Spanish media, this is the result of an investigation by the Spanish public prosecutor’s office.
The Spanish tax investigation had already found the payments in June 2018 at a consulting firm of the former arbitrator. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating what services have been provided for this. Enríquez Negreira denies that they wanted to influence referee decisions. The refereeing committee nominates the referees for each matchday of the two professional leagues for men and the first league for women.
According to research by the daily El País, Enríquez Negreira founded his consulting firm in 1995, a year after he was appointed vice-president of the Referees Committee. According to Enríquez Negreira, the advice was given verbally. Barça employees, on the other hand, stated to the public prosecutor that they had received a detailed written report and a DVD on the behavior of the referees concerned for each matchday, who had been nominated for a match between FC Barcelona and its B team. It was also about how they reacted under pressure, according to El País.
Laporta reacts angrily
In the Catalan daily La Vanguardia, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barça’s president at the time, explained that the payments had already started in 2001. They were also continued during the first mandate of the current club boss Joan Laporta, who presided over the club from 2003 to 2010. However, the public prosecutor’s office is only investigating the period since 2016, older payments are statute-barred.
Although the newspapers do their best to avoid the word bribery, Laporta has reacted angrily to the reports. It is no coincidence that this information is now being published when things are going well at the club, he said on the club’s own TV station. He also wants to take action against “tendency reports that indicate things that are not right”. The club had only commissioned an external consultancy to draw up reports on players in the lower Spanish divisions. This consulting company was later commissioned to advise the professional football sector in the “area of referees”.
Barça coach Xavi Hernández said “this club has things like that”. The referee analysis is part of the normal preparation of a match day. “We always check who is whistling for us, whether they are communicative or not. For many years.” The Catalan “Sport” commented yesterday that it was not the first time that the club had accused the press of wanting to destabilize the club and asked: “Who decides when the time is right for a message?” The Association of Spanish football fans Fasfe said the news was very serious and cast doubt on the integrity of Spanish football. The association must investigate the allegations of its own accord.
