IIn the affair involving FC Barcelona paying millions to a former referee official, the public prosecutor’s office filed a complaint with a court on Friday on suspicion of corruption. The Spanish football club had paid money to the former vice-president of the CTA referees committee, José María Enríquez Negreira.
Investigators concluded that the amounts served to favor Barca in referee decision-making. This was announced by a judicial spokeswoman.
Between 2001 and 2018, the club paid more than 7.3 million euros. The ad is directed against Enríquez Negreira and the club and its former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu and other former Barça officials.
The affair hit the Catalan club, where the German national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen is also under contract, in a sportingly successful phase. Barça currently lead the Primera División by nine points from champions and arch-rivals Real Madrid.
Barcelona deny the allegations
Both representatives of the club and Enríquez Negreira have admitted the business connections, but at the same time denied the allegation of corruption. Barça’s current club president, Joan Laporta, said weeks ago that the club had used advisory services. But that was “very normal in football at the big clubs,” he asserted.
Enríquez Negreira was a referee in the first division of Spain between 1977 and 1992 and then vice-president of the CTA between 1994 and 2018. In an interview with “Cadena Ser”, the 77-year-old emphasized that as CTA Vice President he had never given FC Barcelona preferential treatment in any decision or referee appointment. His company Dasniel 95 SL verbally advised the club on how the players should behave depending on the referee.
