Barcelona charged with corruption in referee affair
BARCELONA, Spain, (AFP) – Spanish prosecutors on Friday charged Barcelona with corruption over payments the club made to a former refereeing chief’s company.
Two of the club’s former presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as ex-refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira are facing the same charge.
The affair concerns alleged payments from Barcelona to Negreira, the former refereeing technical committee vice-president, for providing the club with advice on topics relating to referees.
“FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the Technical Arbitral Committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees,” explained the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office.
This week, current Barca boss Joan Laporta insisted his club had never “bought referees”.
Reports claim the Catalan side paid 6.5 million euros ($6.9 million) between 2001 and 2018 to Negreira’s firm.
“Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never,” said Laporta on Tuesday.