Barcelona will not face sporting punishment for ‘El Caso Negreira’ in Spain, but UEFA’s capacity to act is not prevented by a statute of limitations.
The Blaugrana paid €6.7m to Enriquez Negreira’s company Dansil 95 over a period of 17 years while he was Vice-President of the Referees Committee. That was reportedly for advice on referees and scouting reports. Barcelona maintain this is a normal service for a club to contract.
In Spain, sporting sanctions cannot be undertaken after three years have passed since the incident. La Liga President Javier Tebas said they will not face punishment or investigation, although the anti-corruption department are looking into the incident. Various members of Barcelona could face criminal or fiscal charges.
According to Onda Cero, UEFA could take action though. They would have the freedom to ban Barcelona from European competition if they find that the club took action to attempt to influence games.
They would have to find a way of proving Barcelona received refereeing help, which seems a tricky task at best. While there is suspicion on whether the fees paid to Dansil 95 were fair, it seems unlikely Barcelona would have bought refereeing favours. As pointed out by Estadi Johan, it would be a remarkably ‘cheap’ bribe. Negreira has threatened in the past to reveal ‘all the irregularities’ at Barcelona though, and there is plenty of intrigue as to what they are.
