FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta said on Tuesday that his club had “never bought a referee”, while the Blaugranas are suspected of having paid a former referee manager, José Maria Enriquez Negreira.
By Le Figaro with AFP
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This Tuesday, the Spanish newspaper El Pais claims that the Catalan prosecutor’s office is about to file a complaint against FC Barcelona and its former president Josep Maria Bartomeu for having paid nearly seven million euros to the former leader of the Spanish arbitration José María Enríquez Negreira.
To defend himself, despite the fact that he is not the subject of the complaint, but above all to protect his club, Joan Laporta spoke again: “Let it be clear that Barca never bought a referee nor intended to buy referees. absolutely never“, said the leader during a symposium. “The weight of facts contradicts those trying to change the narrativeadded Laporta, denouncing a smear campaign.
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Bartomeu and his management team targeted
The prosecution is expected to accuse the Catalan club of corruption in business. After almost a year of investigation, the complaint is also directed against the former president of the entity Joseph Maria Bartomeu and against members of its management team responsible for payments.
On February 17, the Spanish daily El Mundo revealed that FC Barcelona had paid more than six million euros between 2001 and 2018 to the company Dasnil 95, owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the committee Technical Referees (CTA) between 1994 and 2018, to advise the club on refereeing matters.
According to Cadena Ser radio, the last payment dates precisely from June 2018, when Enriquez Negreira left the CTA, remodeled following the arrival as president of the Spanish Football Federation of Luis Rubiales.