FC Barcelona Paid To ‘Get Sporting Benefit’, Ex-Referee Tells Police
A former match official has told Spanish police how he understood that FC Barcelona hired the services of ex-vice president of the Referees Committee – Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira – “to get some kind of sporting benefit”, according to documents obtained by El Mundo.
Furthermore, the ex-referee in question – Jose Luis Gonzalez Gonzalez – also stated that Negreira would have made Barca understand “that he had some power over the referees” in Spain.
As part of an investigation known as the ‘Caso Negreira’ in Spain, Barca and former presidents including Josep Bartomeu were charged with “continued corruption between individuals in the sports field” by the Barcelona provincial prosecutor’s office in March 2023.
This occurred once it emerged that the club had paid a firm owned by Jose Negreira over $8 million from 2001 to 2018.
In public and through official club statements, however, current Barca chief Joan Laporta has always maintained that the La Liga holders have done nothing wrong and that payments to Negreira were made for honest consultation work.
In September last year, the magistrate overseeing the case maintained that payments Barca made to Negreira caused “systemic corruption” in the organization which harmed the Blaugrana’s rivals including Real Madrid.
This development was reported by El Confidencial, who claimed it had obtained resolutions from magistrate judge Joaquin Aguirre, which are known as ‘autos’ in Spain.
With the investigation continuing into 2024, El Mundo has achieved access to 21 statements made by referees to the Civil Guard.
The local media has deemed that Gonzalez Gonzalez’s staement stands out the most, with the former La Liga referee who retired in 2020 telling police that he understood Barca had hired Negreira “to get some kind of sporting benefit”.
Gonzalez Gonzalez added that Negreira would have made Barca aware “he had some power over the referees” and also expressed his belief that Negreira and his son “took advantage” of Negreira’s position “to obtain an economic benefit”.
In addition to this, Gonzalez Gonzalez branded the consultation reports that Negreira’s son prepared “useless” and a “mere formality” to “justify” the payments Barca made to Negreira.
“My opinion is that Negreira reached an agreement with the directors or members of FC Barcelona [for them] to benefit in a private capacity from these payments”, Gonzalez also stated according to El Mundo.
The bombshell revelation comes on the eve of a Spanish Super Cup final meeting between Barca and Real Madrid played on Sunday, and means that its timing will be viewed as a way of trying to distract Xavi Hernandez’s men and their club as an institution by many in Catalonia.
