“Negreira Affair”: what is happening at FC Barcelona and in Spanish football?

Europe 1 with AFP 10:14 p.m., March 07, 2023

For several weeks, Spanish football has been in turmoil.

In question, FC Barcelona which would have paid suspicious sums of money to a former senior official of arbitration in football.

The Spanish tax authorities have detected irregularities in the payment of taxes by the company Dasnil 95, which belongs to José Maria Enriquez Negreira, former referee and ex-vice president of the Technical Arbitral Committee (CTA) of the Spanish Football Federation between 1994 and 2018. She transmitted her information to the justice system, which decided to open an investigation.

Barca have admitted to paying more than 6 million euros (6,659,488 euros) since 2001 to the company Dasnil 95 to advise the club on arbitration matters.

When the Spanish CTA was dismembered and restructured in 2018 after a change of presidency, and José Maria Enriquez Negreira lost his position as Spain's number 2 referee, Barça decided to stop the payments.

According to the Spanish daily El Mundo, Mr Negreira then threatened the club, in February 2019, to reveal a "scandal".

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FC Barcelona denies

The online investigative media El Confidencial claims that two other companies are also in the sights of Spanish justice: one (Soccercam SL) belongs to the son of José Maria Enriquez Negreira, and the other (Tresep 2014 SL) to Josep Contreras Arjona, a former Barça manager who died on December 25, whose company was allegedly used to channel payments to the former referee manager. 

For his part, José Maria Enriquez Negreira denies any favors done to the Blaugrana club, as does the president of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta who said on Tuesday that his club had "never bought a referee".

Versions that will have difficulty convincing investigators.

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What is the risk of FC Barcelona on the sporting level?

In Spain, Barca do not risk anything.

"It is impossible for there to be disciplinary or sporting sanctions" against FC Barcelona, ​​explained Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, because "the limitation period for this type of sanction is three years", and that five years have passed since the events.

On the other hand, we still do not know the position of UEFA and FIFA.

The Spanish federation transmitted at the beginning of March "all the information" required by the European football body, which has the possibility of initiating proceedings against FC Barcelona before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

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What risk do Barça and Negreira face in criminal proceedings?

For now, a preliminary investigation is underway, and there is no complaint yet.

If this were the case, the sanctions against Barça could range from "the suspension of the activity" of the club "until its dissolution" pure and simple as a company, Alberto Palomar told AFP , professor of administrative law at the Carlos III University of Madrid.

If justice confirms that there was corruption between individuals, the sanctions will directly target Enriquez Negreira, therefore, but also the former Blaugrana leaders Joan Gaspart (president from 2000 to 2003), Joan Laporta (president from 2003 to 2010, then 2020 to present), Sandro Rosell (president from 2010 to 2014) and Josep Maria Bartomeu (president from 2014 to 2020).

They would face a sentence of six months to four years in prison.

"The decisive point will be to know where the money is (…) If the money has gone to accounts in Switzerland or if it has been used to pay other referees and influence the outcome of matches, then we is squarely on a large-scale scam", explains Alberto Palomar.