Spanish League giants, Barcelona, are again entangled in off-field scandals. This time, the Blaugrana camp was accused of sending a fee of 1.4 million euros to Enriquez Negreira, former vice president of the RFEF Referee Technical Committee. RFEF is Royal Spanish Football Federation, which is the governing body of football in Spain.
The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office found allegations that Barcelona paid the amount to DASNIL 95, a company owned by Negreira, between 2016 and 2018. Barcelona reportedly sent the amount in three payments. This fact became known after the Negreira-owned company underwent a tax audit.
Negreira and his son insist that Barca have never received special treatment and that this payment (for which there was no receipt) was compensation for advisory work. He admitted that this included explaining to the players how they should behave before the referee on the field. Other advice given is a recommendation of what the players can or cannot do depending on who is the referee for the match. The burdensome thing is that Negreira cannot provide any documents stating that it provides services to Barcelona.
The former president of Barca, Josep Maria Bartomeu, stopped these payments in order to cut the club’s expenses. He also stated that this payment had been going on since 2003 when he arrived at the club and continued until 2018. A version of the same story was also told by the board of directors of Sandro Rosell, Barcelona president from 2010-2014. Meanwhile, the former Barca vice president, Joan Gaspart, stated that his party also had no record of this payment.
Barcelona itself denied the circulating information. Barcelona’s official statement said the payment was for “the services of an external consultant”. The Blaugrana camp firmly rejects the practice of regulating refereeing actions and says that this is a common practice in the world of football.
“In the past, the club engaged the services of an external consultant who provided the club’s technical secretaries with reports in video format for young players from other clubs in Spain,” Barcelona said in a statement. “Moreover, the relationship with these suppliers extends to technical reports regarding professional referees to supplement the information requested by the first and second team coaching staff. This is common among football clubs.”
Barca coach, Xavi Hernandez, himself has denied there was anything wrong with the actions of his side. “We always analyze the referee of course and have been doing it for a long time,” said Xavi. “It’s been like that for years and nothing new (as reported). I always try to focus on football. The club has released a statement and I agree with the club.”
This is the latest scandal to hit Barcelona after “Barcagate” when a former member of Barca’s board of directors was arrested in 2021. Barcagate involves an investigation into the actions of former president Josep Bartomeu who paid public relations firm I3 Ventures to do online work for the club. This includes monitoring social media and ensuring a positive image of Bartomeu in online conversations as well as damaging the reputation of several players including Lionel Messi, Xavi and Gerard Pique.
