Barcelona

Referee chief hints at 'years of favours' in Barcelona scandal

By Ben Knapton, Senior Reporter | 24 February 2023

Barcelona allegedly received 'years of favours' in fresh revelations over the scandal surrounding payments to a former referees' chief.

Barcelona have been accused of receiving years of favours from a refereeing chief as the scandal over payments to a former official continue.

Last week, it was revealed that Barcelona had paid approximately £1.2m to a company owned by former Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who is the former vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee, between 2016 and 2018.

Furthermore, Barcelona allegedly also paid the 77-year-old a total of €7m (£6.2m) for seventeen years until he stepped down from his committee duties in 2018.

Now, fresh revelations from El Mundo - via Marca - have published a burofax sent from Negreira to Barcelona in December 2018, by which point the Catalans had sought to end the agreement.

In response, Negreira reminded Barcelona of "so many years of close ties, so much lending of favors and so much confidence shared," as he aimed to continue receiving money from the Spanish giants.

A general shot of Barcelona's Camp Nou taken in June 2020 © Reuters

Current Barcelona president Joan Laporta was also named as one of the figures to have given Negreira direct "indications", and he threatened to expose "irregularities".

The former referees chief also brought up several missed payments from Barcelona, stating that he hoped that they were due to administrative errors unless "greater evils and undesirable actions" could be uncovered.

In response to the allegations, eighteen of the 20 current La Liga teams released a statement expressing their "deep concern" over the scandal, while also rejecting Barcelona's explanation that the payments were in order to receive video reports of referees to benefit coaching anaylsis.

"The majority of La Liga clubs expressed their deep concern about this case, which they consider to be of the utmost seriousness," the statement read.

"The proposal for a joint statement received the unanimous support of all [second division] clubs and all La Liga clubs except for two, who objected to this joint statement for different reasons.

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski celebrates scoring against Manchester United on February 23, 2023 © Reuters

"La Liga and the clubs' executive committee reject and condemn the facts, and are deeply concerned and actively working to clarify any irregularities that may have occurred around the Negreira case, whether of a sporting or any other nature."

La Liga president Javier Tebas - who has often been at odds with Laporta - also implored him to step down in the wake of the allegations, but the Barca chief accused Tebas of being 'obsessed' with Barcelona.

"That is for the club's members to decide. Anyone who tries to tarnish the history and image of Barcelona will receive a strong response," Laporta told reporters. "Some had already warned us that it seemed Tebas was pushing a reputational campaign against Bara and against me.

"The mask has come off. He continues with his obsession with Barca, with his fear of our club. His intention is to control Barca from a distance, which is what he has been doing in recent years."

Barcelona were knocked out of the Europa League 4-3 on aggregate by Manchester United in the knockout round playoffs on Thursday, but they hold an eight-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of the La Liga table and are next in action away to Almeria on Sunday evening.