Barcelona have plenty to be getting on with this summer in the transfer market, but will have some of that attention wrested away by UEFA’s Caso Negreira investigation.
According to Marca, UEFA expect to give their verdict on those investigations in the first two weeks of July. They classify Juventus’ chances of being excluded from the Conference League as ‘more than likely’ following financial irregularities for which they were docked 10 points in Serie A.
Of course Osasuna have been expelled, pending appeal, from the Conference League for a match-fixing scandal that occurred in 2013 and 2014.
Barcelona are currently being investigated in Spain for corruption, but the trial is yet to begin and there is little known about the case other than the fact that former Vice-President of the Referees Committee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira was paid around €7m over the course of 17 years from the club bank account. If it is found that those payments were in order to influence matches, then Barcelona will be facing exclusion from the Champions League.
Currently UEFA are thought to be analysing Barcelona’s responses to 70 questions that were sent to the club to answer about the payments.
If Barcelona were to miss out on the Champions League, and just as pertinently, the money that arrives alongside the competition, it would be a major blow to the club. The Blaugrana will have planned their season and their accounts with that money in mind, and on a reputational level, it would be significant for them to be absent even just for a season.
