September 28th 2023.
Barcelona are currently under investigation for suspected bribery involving payments of over €7 million to companies associated with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the previous vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee. On Thursday, Spanish police raided the offices of Spain's football federation near Madrid as part of the investigation.
Barcelona have denied any wrongdoing and stated that the payments were to cover the cost of an external consultant to provide ‘technical reports related to professional refereeing’. They assert that this is a ‘common practice among professional football clubs’.
Judge Joaquin Aguirre has accused Barcelona, Negreira, former Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, and former Barcelona executives Oscar Grau and Albert Soler of this crime. Current Barcelona president Joan Laporta has firmly stated that the club is innocent.
La Liga president Javier Tebas commented on the situation on Thursday, saying ‘There are indications of totally irregular payments that should not have been made to the vice president of the referees. It will have to be clarified if that was the intention’. He added that the league would be unable to relegate Barcelona if they were found guilty. He said, ‘We do not have powers because these events at the administrative level are prescribed. If we had been able to intervene, a disciplinary file would have been opened and would go to the social judge’.
It is clear that this investigation is far from over. It will be interesting to see whether Barcelona can prove their innocence or if they will be found guilty of bribery.
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