Barcelona are embroiled in another scandal currently, as El Caso Negreira plays out in the public domain. After it was discovered the club had been paying the Vice-President of the Referee’s Committee for ‘refereeing reports’, many have expressed concern over the matter.
Allegedly, Barcelona paid Enriquez Negreira’s company Dansil 95 €6.7m over the course of 17 years for his consultancy work. Barcelona President Joan Laporta has defended it as ‘completely normal’.
However there are doubts about the existence of these reports, and former Barcelona Assistant Jorge Pautasso as added fuel to the fire with his comments to Sport.
“For my part, total ignorance, it’s the first time I’ve heard of this. In our area we dedicated ourselves to preparing the team, putting together the team in the different competitions to be able to compete. We didn’t have any kind of report, nothing.”
Pautasso was Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino’s assistant while the Argentine was at Camp Nou between 2013 and 2014.
“At that time I had a function and nothing on that subject ever reached me, [Tata] Martino never told me anything on that subject.”
“So much so that, on the last day of the league, when we tied with Atletico Madrid, we scored a goal with 15 minutes to go, Messi scored a goal and they called him offside and it favoured Atletico Madrid when the pass was from an Atletico Madrid player, that is, Messi was onside and they did not give the goal. Helping, in our time, not to my knowledge. I am surprised by what you’re telling me.”
