Los payments of 1.4 million euros made by Barça to DASNIL 95 SL, a company of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreiravice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) from 1994 to 2018, they have forced the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to make a move. The entity headed by Luis Rubiales says that he “agreed yesterday (Wednesday) appear in the possible judicial proceedings that are followed on this matterFor its part, LaLiga ruled out that there will be “sports sanctions” against Barça.
The RFEF reiterates, as the CTA did yesterday, that “after the RFEF Presidency elections at the end of May 2018, with the arrival of the current government team, The leadership of the committee was renewed, dismissing the previous directors, among whom was Mr. Enríquez Negreira”. The date is important because after the departure of the former collegiate from his relevant position, the reports ended. In the mechanism activated by the RFEF, its Integrity Department began this Wednesday “a request for information reserved for both those responsible for the CTA and FC Barcelona”.
The Federation continues its statement ensuring that “it demands, in addition to the declaration of non-conflicts of interest from all the members of various bodies and employees, an extended declaration signed by all the members of the disciplinary committees and arbitration appointment in which undertakes to detail any income, regardless of what is received in the RFEF, that could be related to football for the purpose of being able to evaluate and verify the effective and real absence of conflicts of interest”.
CTA Collaboration
A consideration that is directly related to the 33 payments that Enríquez Negreira would have received for verbal reports through a company managed in the first instance by his son. Finally, the RFEF says that “when sufficient information is available, will adopt the corresponding measures within the framework of legality that must prevail in all these situations“. The federative body goes a step further than the CTA, who shortly after revealing the alleged crime of corruption issued a note “regretting behaviors that may be likely to violate the ethics of the estate.”
The arbitration committee established a border with what had been its vice president, following the same path as the RFEF, assuring that Enríquez Negreira belonged to a previous government. Finally, the CTA would put “at the disposal of Justice to offer your maximum collaboration in any type of information that you can contribute”.
The federative regulations consider these activities illegal, as long as it is confirmed that the work of the former arbitration vice president influenced the decisions of the referees, something that, for the moment, has not been proven. If so, it would be necessary to take into account what is included in Article 77 of the Disciplinary Code. “Any conduct directed to the predetermination of results will be considered a very serious infraction”.
No sports sanction
The punishment for the authors of this infraction will be “disqualification, for a period of two to five years, in addition to the deduction of six points in the classification for the clubs involved.” With everything, the new Sports Law and the Disciplinary Code of the RFEF, states that very serious sanctions prescribe after three years. “It will be interrupted by the initiation of the disciplinary procedure, but if it remains paralyzed for a month, for reasons not attributable to the person or entity subject to said procedure, the corresponding period will run again,” the article adds.
The last payment to Negreira by Barcelona was in 2018, coinciding with the departure of the former referee. On this aspect, LaLiga has influenced its positioning, at the hands of its president Javier Tebas. “It is not possible that there are sports sanctions, since between 2018 and 2023 five years have passed and This type of sanction prescribes after three years.“, emphasized the employer’s president, although he differentiated the “criminal jurisdiction” through which this case can run.
“From LaLiga we are going to respect the investigation that the Prosecutor’s Office is going to do and, if it decides to file the appropriate complaint, we will have to appear as a private prosecution,” Tebas explained, following the line drawn by the RFEF. “Now the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the events that occurred and, if there can be a possible crime of corruption between individuals in the match-fixing version and in the sports field. We are going to see how this investigation ends”, estimated the person in charge of the association of clubs.
In addition, the president of LaLiga insisted that he is going to ask the members of the CTA “if Mr. Negreira had any interference or intervened in any designation.” According to the Chain Beingwhich uncovered this case, Enríquez Negreira would have said that he never favored Barça with decisions or arbitration appointments -they did not report directly to him and that his job consisted of verbally advising the entity. “What is a conclusion, that both aesthetically and ethically these things cannot happen in Spanish football,” concluded Tebas, aware of the reputational risk that this investigation entails for the entity he presides over.
