Fresh theory gaining traction in El Caso Negreira as Barcelona dealings remain under question

El Caso Negreira has dominated the news cycle for the past two months in Spain, and while many facts come to light, there is little in the way of clarity on what actually happened.

Barcelona stand accused of corruption in the investigation taking place, with a number of teams, bodies and even Barcelona fans taking part in the upcoming trial as injured parties.

The suggestion has been from the public prosecution that the €6.7m in payments to Enriquez Negreira was used in order to influence matches and referees while the person in question was Vice-President of the Referees Committee.

The fact of the payments in of themselves is problematic to say the least, and Negreira detailed one of the reasons for his payments as ‘ensuring that everything was neutral’.

Barcelona and President Joan Laporta have denied that strenuously, saying that ‘Barcelona have never bought referees’, and promising to explain the dealings.

Sport say that there is an increasingly accepted theory within the club that the payments to Negreira were made in order to funnel money back to directors within the Barcelona board, and other third parties. These claims are as of yet unsubstantiated by any evidence, as is the claim that Barcelona bought off referees.

As Sergio Vinas writes, there are two holes in this argument. Firstly that Negreira is a bizarre choice of intermediary to carry out the operations, given the conflict of interests. As pointed out, it would make something of a coincidence if that role ended just as he lost his position in the Referees Committee by chance too.

At this point, the entire case will likely remain clouded in uncertainty until Barcelona give more detailed explanations and the public investigation is completed. Either way, Barcelona’s image continues to suffer.