As the Negreira case rumbles on, a judge has ratified the right of other La Liga clubs to be part of the legal proceedings as injured parties.
After El Mundo published alleged reports that the Spanish Civil Police believe that refereeing was not impartial during the time that Barcelona were paying Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, they also suspect that the services Barcelona claim they paid for were not genuine.
Now, El Confidencial say that the Magistrate Joaquin Aguirre has emitted a series of resolutions so that the case can continue. Former Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu had made a complaint to get Real Madrid removed from the case, but the judge has declared that if indeed ‘systemic corruption’ is proven, then all La Liga clubs could consider themselves injured parties, ratifying their right to be part of the case.
The judge will also not pursue money laundering through deceased Barcelona Director Josep Contreras as a line of investigation, as it would ‘without reason block the principal investigation’, noting that it could be a long and drawn out investigation.
The RFEF have been excluded from the case, with the judge deciding that they are private entity that carries out public functions by delegation, rather than an individual or company.
The judge has instructed that a separate team should be dedicated exclusively to exploring the potential legal consequences for Barcelona.
Further to the investigation itself, the judge wants to explore whether the payments to Negreira can be considered a crime even if there is no evidence of particular referees being paid to alter particular games. So far they are yet to find any evidence of that.
The court is also keen to find out whether a system of promotion and relegation was installed at the Referees Committee (CTA) that meant Negreira could influence matters, and thus have a say in the financial remuneration of referees, who earned more based on international competitions.
To that end, the courts have requested further documentation from Barcelona, the RFEF and the Catalan Football Federation about their due diligence systems. None of the three picked up the payments to Negreira as potentially fraudulent.
Aguirre has also ruled out the CTA’s claim that Negreira’s role was purely decorative, as had been claimed by head of the organisation currently Luis Medina Cantalejo.
The investigation will continue for some time yet, with no sign of the matter being brought to trial. It should be noted that all of these are reports from El Confidencial and El Mundo, and have not been confirmed by any of the parties involved.