According to El Confidencial, UEFA might exclude FC Barcelona from European competitions next season due to the scandal over payments to former vice-president of referees Enriquez Negreira.
The Negreira scandal might have serious consequences for Barça on the European scene. According The confidentialUEFA is following very closely the progress of the legal proceedings brought once morest the club for having paid more than seven million euros to Enriquez Negreira, when the latter occupied the post of vice-president of the Technical Committee for Referees (CTA).
UEFA is very interested in the file
Catalan justice recently prosecuted the club and its former administrators for “unfair administration, corruption in business in its sporting modality and false documents”. The investigating judge of the Barcelona court thus followed the position of the public prosecutor’s office according to which the payments to the vice-president of the CTA were directed so that Negreira carried out “actions tending to favor the FCB in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club, and therefore in the results of competitions”.
UEFA’s Integrity Department sent a letter to the Spanish Federation (RFEF) on February 24 requesting full information on this matter. What the Fed has agreed to do, positioning itself as a relay between justice and UEFA. If the facts denounced are prescribed in Spanish sports law (this is not the case criminally), UEFA might take measures on its side. She is already considering joining the deal, like the Spanish federation or Real Madrid
The body’s rules on the admission of clubs to its competitions are very clear. “Admission to a UEFA competition for member associations or clubs involved directly or indirectly in any activity aimed at organizing or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level may be refused with immediate effect, without prejudice to possible disciplinary measures”, indicates the text. Barca’s involvement in the Negreira case might fit into this framework.
Barca might thus breach Article 50 of the UEFA statutes which states that all persons bound by the rules must refrain from “any activity aimed at rigging or influencing the result at national or international level”. If the European body finds Barça at fault, then it will declare this club “ineligible to participate in the competition”. This ineligibility would only be effective for one season. The threat of such a sanction – which might be decided in June – can shake the club, already in great financial difficulty and which is counting on the windfall of a qualification for the Champions League to breathe.
