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The Prosecutor’s Office asks to summon Luis Enrique and Valverde for the ‘Negreira case’

The Prosecutor’s Office has requested that Luis Enrique Martínez and Ernesto Valverde be summoned to testify as witnesses in the ‘Negreira case’. The complaint filed last Friday by the Public Ministry against Barça, the former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, the former directors Albert Soler and Òscar Grau and the former vice president of the Referees Technical Committee (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira for overpayments of seven million euros that the culé entity paid to the refereeing leader between 2001 and 2018, includes the names of the two coaches because both paraded through the Barça club between 2014 and 2018, a period in which he would have tried to influence the decisions of the collegiates through their relationship with the one who was number two in the estate.

The Public Ministry wants to know if Luis Enrique and Valverde, in their capacity as Barça coaches, were aware of the existence of some analyzes that, according to the club chaired by Joan Laporta in the statement issued as soon as the scandal broke out, consisted of “technical reports related to arbitration” that were intended for the “technical staff of the first team”. The Prosecutor’s Office requested these reports from the Barça entity but has not been able to prove their existence, for which reason it has urged the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona to call a statement on the former Spanish coach and the current Athletic coach so that they Please explain if you were aware of those documents.

It should be remembered that Valverde was requested in this regard by journalists in the preview of the League match that last Sunday measured Athletic against Barça in San Mamés and made it clear that he never received information from Negreira despite having trained the Catalans for two and a half seasons, although only the first would be affected since payments ceased in 2018 by order of the then president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

“It has been a surprise for me, I had no idea about all this,” replied the Txingurri when the informants asked him if he knew about the payments to the former vice president of the CTA. «It is an issue that catches us a bit far. Or right now it catches me a little far. I guess it will become clearer over time, because we don’t have all the data yet. It has been a surprise but we have to be cautious to see where all this goes, “he added. The Athletic coach explained that in his current club reports from the referees are also prepared, but he specified that they reach his assistant Jon Aspiazu and that he sometimes looks at them. “In Barcelona I didn’t even look at them and I didn’t even know they existed,” he insisted.

The CSD goes into action

Meanwhile, the Higher Sports Council (CSD) confirmed this Monday that it will also appear in the ‘Negreira case’ if the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona admits the case for processing and urged Joan Laporta to explain the role of the culé club in the biggest scandal in the history of Spanish football.

“The intention of the CSD is to appear, but at the right time, because we must not forget that the Prosecutor’s Office has denounced before an Investigating Court, that court has to admit it for processing and that will be when we, with our legal services, appear already in this case,” said José Manuel Franco in statements made to “El programa de Ana Rosa” on Telecinco.

The Secretary of State for Sport expressed his concern about an issue that is staining Spanish football and, by extension, other disciplines. «What is bad for football is bad for Spanish sport. A club does not pay the vice-president of the referees like this for nothing, “argued Franco, who urged Laporta to offer explanations as soon as possible. «I ask Mr. Laporta to clarify for once what has happened. If there are things we don’t know about, tell them. The social mass of FC Barcelona also deserves an explanation », he added.

Like the CSD, also LaLiga, the Spanish Football Federation (FEF) and the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) previously announced their intention to appear as a private prosecution in the ‘Negreira case’, as Real Madrid also did on Sunday feeling “harmed” by a matter that has called into question the cleanliness of the competitions and that threatens to exclude Barça from European tournaments for a season.

The Prosecutor’s Office has denounced Barça, as a legal person, for a continuous crime of corruption between individuals in the sports field, while Bartomeu and Rosell are also accused of a crime of unfair administration and another of falsifying a commercial document. According to the letter of the Public Ministry, the objective of the Barcelona entity was that, “in exchange for money”, the former number two of the CTA “carry out actions tending to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches they played the club, and thus in the results of the competitions. The former leader of the collegiate, however, declared before the Tax Agency that he was hired by Barça because the club wanted to guarantee “neutral” arbitrations that would not harm him.

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