Barcelona has legal siege in arbitration scandal – 09/28/2023 – Sport

The investigation into the arbitration scandal involving Barcelona advanced this Thursday (28), with a search operation in the offices of the referees committee of the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation), already weakened by the Rubiales case.

The Civil Guard carried out searches at the offices of the CTA (Technical Committee of Referees), on the outskirts of Madrid, during the morning. No arrests were planned, according to sources at the institution.

The agents followed orders from Barcelona’s Court of Instruction 1, responsible for investigating what became known as the “Negreira case”, which involves alleged payments from the Catalan club to companies owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, who was number two in Spanish arbitration. for 25 years.

The judge in the case, Joaquín Aguirre, also accused those investigated, including Barcelona and several former directors, for an alleged crime of bribery.

For the magistrate, “Barcelona paid, through intermediary companies, one of the three vice-presidents of the Technical Committee of Referees”, which is a “fact that has not been denied and is documented”.

Aguirre pointed out that the payments possibly extended “for around 18 years, going from the initial 70 thousand euros (almost R$370 thousand, at current exchange rates) to 700 thousand euros per year (R$3.7 million)”. They only ceased when Negreira left office, in 2018, when Luis Rubiales assumed the presidency of the RFEF.

“By logical deduction, the payments made by FC Barcelona served the club’s interests, taking into account their duration and the annual increase”, he stated, indicating that the Catalan club benefited from the “desired arbitration effects”.

The case is investigated by the Civil Guard.

The Spanish club denied, in turn, that it had carried out any “action that had the ultimate objective or intention of altering the competition to obtain some type of sporting advantage”, in a statement by its current president, Joan Laporta.

The Negreira case reached a new level in March, when Barcelona’s Public Prosecutor’s Office filed a corruption complaint against the Catalan club and several former directors, such as former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu.

There was also a complaint against José María Enríquez Negreira and some of his companies, through which he allegedly received more than 7.3 million euros (R$38.5 million) between 2001 and 2018, according to the Public Ministry.