Accused of corruption towards a former referee, FC Barcelona is at great risk. A Catalan court announced the transmission of the investigation to an investigating judge. This new stage of the affair is not reassuring for the Catalan club, especially since La Liga represented by Javier Tebas continues to put pressure.
FC Barcelona is far from out of the woods. In Spain, the football world has its eyes riveted on the scandal affecting the Catalan club. The current leader of La Liga is accused of corruption towards Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former head of the referees whose several companies received strange payments (more than 7.3 million euros) from the Blaugrana.
????️ Pique: “We never knew who Enriquez Negreira was. We players didn’t know any of that, we were out of it. I trust Laporta and Barça, I know what that the club has done well.” pic.twitter.com/mcbODQRGB8
— Barça News (@BarcaNewsFRA) March 14, 2023
Barça and some of its ex-presidents have therefore been charged with “ corruption between individuals in the sports sector », « breach of trust » et « forgery in business records “. And this is surely only the beginning of the troubles for the club led by Joan Laporta. Indeed, the Barcelona court so far in charge of the case has entrusted the investigation to the investigating judge Silvia Lopez Mejias.
La Liga civil party
The case takes on a new dimension since the judge has agreed to join two complaints to the file, namely those of the public prosecutor and the arbitrator Xavier Estrada Fernandez. The latter had actually sued Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira in court. Note that the judge also validated the request of La Liga, now a civil party in this case, and whose boss Javier Tebas absolutely wants to know the whole truth.
« There are payments recognized by Barcelona to the vice-president of the CTA (technical arbitration committee), it is something abnormalunderlined the Spanish leader on the Movistar channel. It is clear that this generates tension. The reputation of our football is at stake. I am ashamed. We have no explanation from Barcelona.. According to Barça, the installments were used to pay for simple advice on arbitration.
