• Courts Real Madrid defends its interest "in the cleanliness of the competition" and is person as "harmed" in the 'Negreira case' against Barça

The investigation against the former presidents of Barça, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu and former directors of the Barça club for the payment of 7.5 million euros to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees José María Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018 harmed Real Madrid. This is considered by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office that has informed the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona in favor of the personation of the white club in this procedure as a private accusation, as judicial sources informed this media.

The prosecutors have submitted their report at the request of the court that asked to know the opinion of all the parties involved regarding the new requests to appear as an accusation in these proceedings. The Public Ministry reported only onReal Madrid and is expected to position itself in a few days on the member of the white club or the Higher Sports Council that also presented writings to accuse in this investigation for the alleged crimes of corruption in sports and document falsification.

The court must decide in a few weeks whether to accept as an accusation Real Madrid and the rest of the organizations and paticulars that have requested it. At the moment only LaLiga, the Spanish Football Federation and the VAR referee Estrada Fernández are within the procedure, whose complaint caused judicial proceedings to be opened, since the investigation was carried out in the Prosecutor's Office for more than a year. The judge must also agree on whether the accusation is private or popular. In the latter case, it would allow the legal direction to be unified under a single accusation, the first by order to appear in the proceedings.

The decision of the Prosecutor's Office contrasts with the request of former Barça presidents Rosell and Bartomeu and former director Albert Soler, who urged the court to reject Madrid as a private accusation. Specifically, Bartomeu's lawyer, José María Fuster-Fabra, indicated that in this investigation there is "not the slightest indication of damage" against the white club.

"The admission without any justification of individual particular accusations of each of the football teams would lead to a procedure of impossible instruction," says the lawyer who added that if Real Madrid is accepted "the Real Club Deportivo Espanyol, Celta de Vigo, Elche Club de Fútbol, etc. "and the rest of the teams "that participate in the Professional Football League and the Royal Spanish Football Federation" could try to appear.

Also Miguel Capuz, lawyer of the former director Albert Soler, has presented his opposition to the personation of Real Madrid in this procedure considering that there is no direct damage against this team in the payments to Negreira. FC Barcelona could also submit a letter to the court rejecting the white club as an accuser.

However, in its indictment presented in the judicial proceedings, Real Madrid detail that they participate "in the National League Championship, so that the actions that are the subject of this case, tending to favor FC Barcelona, one of the main competitors of our represented, in the decision-making of the referees and, That way, in the results of the competition, they undoubtedly hurt him."

In addition, they stressed that the Criminal Code "protects the cleanliness in sports competitions and the social interest and of its own participants in safeguarding sports integrity, an interest in which ethical values converge and which in turn has economic implications." Therefore, they requested to be a private accusation as the prosecutor now considers.

  • Real Madrid
  • FC Barcelona
  • Alberto Fabra
  • Josep Maria Bartomeu
  • Barcelona
  • Neymar Case

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