More news continues to leak out of the Negreira case, as Barcelona and their last three presidents are investigated for bribery. The latest is that the court magistrate leading the investigation, Joaquin Aguirre, believes that corruption within Spanish referees was not universal but limited to a group.
The case has so far been carried out in public fashion in spite of the fact that it is an open police investigation, with a large number of court documents being leaked to the public.
El Espanol claim that they have had access to the latest judicial decree to come out of the case, where Aguirre suspects that it was a group of referees that were corrupt.
“From here it is also deduced that the payments produced the refereeing effects desired by FC Barcelona, in such a way that there must have been inequality in the treatment with other teams and the consequent systemic corruption in the Spanish arbitration as a whole, which does not mean that each and every one of the referees were corrupt, but a group of them were.”
This would perhaps explain the fact that a number of referees have publicly sworn and been vociferous about the fact there has never been corruption. It would also open a can of worms in terms of the refereeing system, as to how former Vice-President of rthe Referees Committee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira organiseed this ring.
Aguirre also notes that the length and pattern of payments, increasing in amounts until 2018, when Negreira lost his position, suggest that Barcelona were satisfied with his work.
“By logical deduction, the payments made by FC Barcelona satisfied the interests of the club in view of their duration and the annual increase.”
The key issue currently appears to hinge upon the categorisation of Negreira’s role. If he is ruled as a public functionary, then the bribery charge that is being investigated does not need to prove that there was sporting corruption, but merely that Barcelona paid him to carry out his duties. Barcelona will likely argue that as the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is a private company, Negreira was not a civil servant.
Yesterday it emerged that President Joan Laporta is also now being investigated, with Aguirre extending the period to be investigated by five years, going back 10 year from the last payment rather than from when the case was opened. It is not yet clear whether this will be upheld.
No kidding?