UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has warned Barcelona that he could still face sporting sanctions at European level if he is found to have broken the rules in the Negriera case.
Although the Spanish federation and LaLiga cannot punish Barcelona at the sporting level, because several years have passed since the payments to the former vice-president of refereeing, this statute of limitations is not an obstacle with regard to UEFA.
UEFA announced 10 days ago that it had launched a full investigation into the Negriera case, looking for possible violations of UEFA's legal framework by the Catalan club.
Asked about the Negrira case, Ceferin said he could not comment directly on this for two reasons:
"I can say one thing: they told me that the situation is very serious. In my opinion, this is one of the most dangerous cases I've seen in football."
"When it comes to the Spanish football authorities, it is over the statute of limitations and there can be no sporting sanctions, but I know that the proceedings are underway at the level of the Spanish Civil Prosecutor's Office," he explained. But as far as UEFA is concerned, nothing is time-barred."
The UEFA president concluded that "Barcelona faces sporting sanctions from UEFA, if it is proven that it committed any violation."
Barcelona are accused of engaging in secret relations with referees and paying money to a company owned by Jose Maria Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish federation's referees committee.
"FC Barcelona has maintained a highly confidential verbal agreement with Negrera, so that – in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitration committee – in exchange for money he performs actions that give preference to FC Barcelona with the decisions of the referees in the matches played by the club, and therefore in the results and competitions," AFP quoted the prosecution as saying.
Prosecutors said the Catalan club paid a total of more than €7 million to Negrera between 1994 and 2018.