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Negreira case

The Negreira case (Spanish: Caso Negreira), also known as the Negreira affair, is a scandal involving Spanish football club FC Barcelona and José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The scandal revolves around payments of €7.3 million made by Barcelona to Negreira from 2000 to 2018 during his tenure with the CTA. Barcelona claim they hired Negreira as an "external consultant" who provided the club reports "related to professional refereeing". Negreira denies having been bribed to favour Barcelona in terms of refereeing decisions.

Background

José María Enríquez Negreira, born in Barcelona in September 1945, is a former professional football referee who made his debut in La Liga in the 1979–80 season. In 1994, he became a vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The payments involved in the scandal were made from 2000 to 2018, during his tenure with the CTA.

In 2020, Barcelona had been involved in another scandal, dubbed "Barçagate", which regarded an alleged defamation campaign by the administration of then-Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Accusations and investigation

On 15 February 2023, reports surfaced on Spanish radio station Cadena SER that FC Barcelona had allegedly made payments to a company belonging to José María Enríquez Negreira in a potential bribery scandal. Two days later, new information surfaced that showed a letter dated 5 February 2019, in which Negreira threatened to expose Barça's illegal activities in retaliation for the club finishing the contract with Negreira's firm, following a series of cost reductions.

In March 2023, FC Barcelona, former FC Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, José María Enríquez Negreira, and his son Javier Enríquez Romero Negreira, were indicted for "corruption", "breach of trust", and "false business records", opening an investigation into the case. In September 2023, a further charge of "bribery" was attributed to all those investigated. On 18 October 2023, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta was also indicted on charges of "bribery, sports corruption, unfair administration, and forgery".

Reactions

FC Barcelona

On 15 February 2023, FC Barcelona issued a club statement in response to information broadcast on Cadena SER on the same day, clarifying the accusations made against the club. Regarding the payments, Barcelona claimed that the club had "hired the services of an external consultant [Negreira] that supplied the club's technical secretaries with reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain", and that in addition to these reports, "the relationship with that supplier extended to technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to complement the information requested by the first and second team coaching staff". However, Barcelona denied any wrongdoing, with president Joan Laporta claiming in March that "Barcelona has never bought referees".

Other La Liga clubs

On 21 February 2023, a collection of a La Liga clubs issued a joint statement reacting to the investigation into FC Barcelona, expressing their "deep concern" over the information published. The clubs issuing the statement were Atlético Madrid, Levante UD, CD Tenerife, Sevilla FC, Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Cádiz CF, Getafe CF, Villarreal CF, Deportivo Alavés, SD Eibar, UD Las Palmas, CD Lugo, and SD Huesca. Barcelona's rival Real Madrid CF later issued a statement expressing "deep concern about the seriousness of the events".

On 29 September 2023, ahead of a league match between Barcelona and Sevilla, Sevilla issued a statement rejecting the "behaviour of Barcelona during the period" for which the club was being investigated. Sevilla directors refused a pre-match meal with Barcelona directors and refused to sit in the directors' box at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. Barcelona reacted by issuing a club statement rejecting Sevilla's actions, characterizing them as an "unjustified attack" and an "unacceptable offense".

UEFA

On 23 March 2023, UEFA announced that it had launched an investigation into the payments by Barcelona to Negreira. On 3 April 2023, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin described the Negreira case as "one of the most serious" he's ever seen.