Barcelona ask to be part of Caso Negreira investigation as injured party as well as accused

Barcelona have asked the public prosecutor, in particular the Anti-Corruption Department, to attend the Negreira case as an injured party as well as a party under investigation.

The Blaugrana are currently in legal process as the Anti-Corruption Department attempt to establish whether their €7m in payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, former Vice-President of the Referees Committee, was used to influence referees or was paid for services not rendered.

During a press conference in April, President Joan Laporta maintained Barcelona’s innocence in the matter, claiming that there was a concerted effort to paint Barcelona as guilty. He also hinted that ‘it’s possible that Barcelona may be the victim here’.

As per MD, they have asked to be part of the case as a potentially damaged party, which would suggest they do indeed feel the club has been harmed by the case.

Equally, they have reportedly asked the judge to reject Real Madrid’s public accusation, highlighting the ‘gratuity’ with which Real Madrid ‘happily’ accused Barcelona.

By their reasoning, neither Real Madrid nor any of the other clubs involved in La Liga can point to a particular game with evidence of tampering, and thus cannot present themselves in the case as a damaged private entity, but rather it would have to be a general, public accusation. That accusation would be about the integrity of the competition, in which case the relevant party would be La Liga, who are already present in the case.

Following this logic, none of the other clubs that have asked to be part of the case would be allowed in either, unless able to present specific evidence of when they were harmed by the alleged charges.

If Real Madrid are allowed into the case, then Barcelona ask that they put up a guarantee of €500k, which they say is reasonable for a side with a budget of €770m, presumably to cover public legal costs.

No doubt this is the latest episode of hostilities between the clbs after Laporta gave that press conference, with both sides accusing each other of being linked to former Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco.