Barcelona were charged by Spanish prosecutors with corruption over payments the club made to a former refereeing chief’s company.
Two of Barcelona’s former presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell and the ex-refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira are facing the same charge.
The affair concerns alleged payments the club made to Negreira, the former refereeing technical committee vice-president, for providing the club with verbal advice on topics relating to referees.
The charges come days after current Barca boss Joan Laporta insisted his club had never “bought referees”.
Reports claim the Catalan side allegedly made a payment of 6.5 million euros ($6.9 million) to Negreira’s firm between 2001 and 2018.
“Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never,” said Laporta on Tuesday.
This is only the beginning of a long legal process that could end with some sort of fine or sanction for the club — the results of which won’t be known anytime soon but the city of Barcelona has denounced the club as a legal entity, as well as former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu.
Discussion about this post