Correction: Originally this article stated that ‘the Civil Guard do consider the reports that Barcelona paid more than €8m to Negreira as completely false.’
This was incorrect, and should have read the following: ‘the Civil Guard consider that Barcelona paid more than €8m to Negreira for refereeing reports as completely false.’
Over the last six months, there has been plenty of talk about referees, and especially in regards to impartiality. This has been due to El Caso Negreira, which centred on the relationship between Barcelona and Enriquez Negreira, former Vice-President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA).
Barcelona have defiantly stated that they never paid for referees during their partnership with Negreira, and there has yet to be any evidence to suggest otherwise. They state that the payments were for referee reports, which are legal and used by many other teams.
However, as El Mundo have reported, the Civil Guard have concluded that during the time in which Negreira was VP of the CTA, the organisation was “not impartial”.
The report also states that Barcelona “have not provided the identity of the professionals who would have developed the services” by Negreira’s companies and that they have not delivered “copies of videos, documents or reports in which the specific advisory work is carried out”.
The Civil Guard consider that Barcelona paid more than €8m to Negreira for refereeing reports as completely false, claiming that those services were fictitious and not as claimed by the club.
The Spanish courts have received these documents, and there is sure to be a review into them. For the time being, Barcelona remain in limbo over the matter.
