BarcelonaAs published The world, the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira sent another burofax threatening Barça in which he demanded from the club leadership that he could not stop paying him “after so many years of relationship, of so many favors given and of so many confidences shared”. At the same time he emphasized that he always received direct “indications” from the different presidents, including Joan Laporta, the current top leader of the club, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.
Enríquez Negreira, through his lawyers, addressed the Barça organization months after the club, under the presidency of Bartomeu’s board, severed its commercial relationship with the former referee. The historic ex-collegiate demanded that his association continue, he asked for the outstanding invoices to be paid and, again, he referred to the services provided to Barça during his long association which, at least, dates from 2001
The legal representative of the former number two of the Spanish collegiates sent this burofax to the club on December 3, 2018. It is a communication prior to the first of the burofaxes, which was already published by the Madrid newspaper, in which the pressure was increasing and he warned – in a letter addressed to Bartomeu – that he would bring to light all the “irregularities” in which he had participated and that he had “credits”. As a result of this whole case, the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into an alleged crime of corruption between individuals for the payment of 1.4 million euros by Barça to José María Enríquez Negreira, between 2016 and 2018 .
Cross fire between Tebas and Laporta
This new revelation of the threats from the former vice-president of the CTA comes shortly after the crossfire of statements between the president of the League, Javier Tebas, and the top Barcelona leader, Joan Laporta. In fact, the Barcelona president had remained silent since the Negreira case broke out. Until this Tuesday, Laporta had not spoken and the only official words from the club were a statement, last week, in which they did not clarify why Barça had hired the vice-president of the referees and had paid a golden price for some alleged reports about the collegiates.
The entry of Tebas onto the scene, however, served to bring Laporta out of the hole. If the League president proposed that the president of Barça should resign, Laporta replied that “he wouldn’t like it” and returned the blow with more force: “He has a phobia of Barça”. Tebas was the perfect excuse for the president of Barça, who is trying to buy time, to throw a shovel of sand at this fire. The reasons for hiring Enríquez Negreira remain unclear, nor is it justified how almost 7 million euros were paid (in total) to his company, Dasnil 95, a figure far above what is paid in the market of arbitration reports.
According to Laporta, it is being investigated and “soon” he will give the appropriate explanations. Meanwhile, the attack by the president of the employers’ association served to divert attention and say that this case is born of the will of a few – including Tebas – to harm Barça. For his part, Xavi Hernández, in the preview of Manchester United – Barça this Thursday, stated that he has “never” heard that the referees have helped him “neither in Spain nor in Europe”.
