The scandal at FC Barcelona is not seen much in the media here. Of course, they fall from the top of the shelf where they accommodated the blind idyll for everything that comes from Europe. And just as they don’t give much space to another deduction of points from Juventus due to irregularities in transfers -remember the ‘Calciopoli’ for which the Vecchia Signora was relegated in 2006-, nor to the sanction that will be imposed on Manchester City for violating fair play financial.
Well, in Barcelona and Spanish football there is an unprecedented scandal. for these hours. The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the culé club for an alleged crime of corruption with a company owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, former referee and vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Royal Spanish Football Federation between 1994 and 2018.
The reason? Payments of USD 1.5 million made during the last three years of his term. Since he retired, this Negreira man offers consultancy and advisory services through the company DASNIL 95. His reports are oriented towards soccer clubs. Negreira, are about the character and nature of the referees so that the players and coaching staff can prepare their relationship with them during the matches.
According to the media in Spain, El Mundo and El País, “this is something common in professional football. The clubs extract information about the referees and deal with it. What is extraordinary lies both in the amounts invoiced and in the position held by Negreira between 1994 and 2018: vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (that is, the “vice president of the referees”). Negreira was a judge, but also a party.”
In this conflict of interest, what is being investigated is his relationship with Barcelona. In Spain they not only fear for Culé but also for a repeat of a case similar to that of ‘Calciopoli’, which will drag all of Spanish football to be relegated, like the Italian, in the concert of Europe.
