The Negreira case has been one of the leading stories in Spanish football over the course of 2023, ever since news first broke in February of Barcelona’s alleged relationship with Enriquez Negreira, former Vice President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA).
Legal proceedings are currently ongoing, with Barcelona having been charged with bribery and sporting corruption by the Prosecutor’s Office in Spain. Real Madrid intend to appear as an injured party, although not everyone that was involved with the club during the period in which Barcelona were allegedly involved with Negreira, which is reported to have started as early as 2001, felt there was an effect on proceedings.
Fernando Morientes played for Los Blancos between 1997 and 2005, and he told Marca that he did not feel as if things changed much at all from when Barcelona began their alleged relationship with Negreira.
“No (I didn’t feel harmed), and I say this with my heart in my hand. I don’t think it’s normal for a club in this country to have paid a CTA official, but it’s true that I’ve been a footballer and I haven’t had that feeling. I don’t know if it’s because in those years, we at Real Madrid won a lot of titles, but on the pitch I haven’t had the feeling of being benefited or harmed.”
Barcelona have maintained throughout that they did nothing wrong during the period in which they were allegedly in business with Negreira. For now, legal proceedings are still in progress.
