The referees of the Negreira era: "It could be good for you to hire the son of the vice president"

• Exclusive EL MUNDO accesses Barcelona's invoices to Negreira: 33 payments in two years for 1,685,142 euros

• Scandal Negreira also blackmailed Barcelona for diverting 720,000 euros to a manager

• Referees Negreira threatened Barcelona by burofax: "If there is no agreement, all the irregularities will come out"

Year 2008. Annual concentration of referees in Santander.

A certain

shows up to give a talk .

"That coaching thing started," recalls the former referee

.

But this Javi was not a referee, and he began to talk to him about how they should manage errors in a match.

Pérez Burrull and Medina Cantalejo leave.

"Let's see, I don't doubt his abilities, but I had the feeling that he was selling us the bike," recalls Burrull, who refereed his 13 seasons in the First Division with Negreira on the Committee.

He also recalls that, at that first moment, "

."

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EL MUNDO accesses Barcelona's invoices to Negreira: 33 payments in two years for 1,685,142 euros

• Writing: ESTEBAN URREIZTIETA

• Drafting: ORFEO SUÁREZ Madrid

EL MUNDO accesses Barcelona's invoices to Negreira: 33 payments in two years for 1,685,142 euros

From that day until 2015, Javi Enríquez became the Mental Coach of the Technical Committee of Referees.

On his website, full of phrases from classical philosophers, he highlights his training in

, or a photo with the referees playing

.

"It's just that it's very difficult for me to listen to someone who has never whistled a game," Burrull justifies his lack of interest, which did not prevent many referees from ending up hiring their services privately.

As EL MUNDO has learned, at least two referees still active did so.

"Man, in arbitration there is a lot of competition, they can raise you, they can lower you, and it

to hire the son of the vice president ," suggests the Cantabrian referee.

The referee Muñiz Fernández surrounded by Sevilla players.EFE

These days the WhatsApp groups of the referees of the nineties and the beginning of this century are "freaking out", summarizes Pérez Burrull.

from Almería

, recounts that it came to him that "in important Barcelona matches in his field, Negreira's son called the referees to ask them what hotel they were in, and took them to the field."

But Burrull takes away the iron: "Maybe the only day of the year they saw him was when they were in Barcelona to whistle for Barça or Espanyol, I don't think he has more of a run."

Andújar sees more risk, since the referees could confess to them "what they thought in private" about players, about teams, and then transmit that information.

In addition, the staging that he gave to the Barça managers, who paid the father of a man who took the referees to the field before the game.

"What are you going to tell him if he calls you, no, don't take me? This is what it is, a shame," the former referee Urizar Azpitarte

lamented on Onda

"Those who knew that the son was doing that should have said it. I did not know anything, because I did not experience it," denounces Andújar, which now leads him to say: "I put my hand in the fire for me, what I can't do is put it on for a whole generation".

"He never went to look for me on the field,"

, from the Referees Committee of the Principality of Asturias, and with 14 years in First Division (2000-2014), gets out of the way: "I did not expect someone from the house, from your own family has been playing with us. It puts the honor and honesty of the referees at stake, which was already highly questioned, and that makes me go up the walls".

, from the Tenerife school , also gets out of the way

: "It hurts from a personal point of view, because it took many years. You look like a fool."

The son of Enriquez Negreira in the VAR room of a soccer field.javienriquezcoach.com

They all assure that they had no idea that while they were refereeing, Negreira was paid by Barça.

More than 6.5 million euros from 2001 to 2018, at the hands of four presidents.

"Only he knew that, if another person on the Committee had known, he would not have accepted it. The relationship between a referee and a club has to be zero, and a member of the Technical Committee is the first to set an example, " Burrull believes.

And the same Urizar: "If

(the president of the referees) knew it, he would have thrown him out, or later Velasco Carballo."

Precisely the concept of the amounts paid by Barça is what has the referees the most pissed off.

According to Barça, for making "technical reports related to professional arbitration".

According to the Tax Agency, "Barcelona wanted to make sure that no arbitration decisions were made against them, that is, that everything was neutral."

"I don't know if someone could clarify what arbitration advice is because I don't understand it, nor the concept, much less the amounts. Seven million? But what is this for? To tell you if the referee takes out the cards with the left hand, if you have to treat him like you, if he runs around the field a lot, if he has a bad mood? With that, is he already advised?" Pérez Burrull wonders.

What if they paid to influence their decisions?

"But if we didn't talk to him at all, if we saw him twice a year in the physical tests, also thinking that

because it will not influence him," says Muñiz Fernández.

And at least make hints or comments about his performances.

"He never told us anything, he never went to any referee to tell him anything. Also,

It shows a complete ignorance of what a soccer referee is. Anyone who think that you can influence the referees is that you have never seen a soccer referee, at least the ones I have known from the age of 15 to 45. That is what does not fit me in all this", concludes Burrull.

Even so, many hired Javi Enríquez.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Tax agency

• FC Barcelona