Barcelona administrators claim they compensated a prime refereeing boss £6m across almost 20 many years in ‘SELF-DEFENCE’ to protect on their own from bias, with investigators now established to interview president Joan Laporta and former administrators Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde
Barcelona directors have claimed a top rated refereeing boss in Spain was compensated by the club for just about two decades as an act of ‘self defence’, according to Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The club was charged with corruption about payments created to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the then vice-president of the Spanish referees’ committee, final Friday.
The accusation said that Negreira ‘in trade for money’ carried out steps that would ‘lead to Barcelona staying favoured in the decision producing of the referees’.
El Mundo has spoken to former directors of the club and been explained to by them that Barcelona was preserving by itself in opposition to a perceived bias against it.
The variation of functions matches the one presented by Negreira when he was at first investigated by Spain’s Inland Earnings. He stated that Barcelona employed him to warranty ‘neutral’ refereeing.
Barcelona have been charged with corruption in excess of payments to a previous referees’ official
Current Barcelona president Joan Laporta has insisted the club has in no way purchased referees
Former Barcelona coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde are set to be interviewed
El Mundo suggests it has also been informed confidentially by the previous Barcelona administrators that ties were not lower with Negreira due to the fact he threatened to get revenge on the club by revealing the connection.
This fits with faxes released by El Mundo sent from Negreira’s lawyers to the club at the end of 2019 and the commence of 2020 when the club experienced at last stopped spending the, by then former, vice-president of the Referees’ Committee.
The General public Prosecutor in Spain claims Barcelona compensated Negreira €7.3million (£6.46m) through two companies he owened – DASNIL and NILSAT.
Investigators will now job interview previous Barcelona coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde as perfectly as president Joan Laporta who was almost in tears when he addressed a team of Barcelona players from all athletics and youth groups on Monday telling them he was psychological because he was desperate to: ‘take on the shameless men and women staining the club’s badge’.
The president’s principal instant worry will be that the furore close to the scandal does not affect the financing options for the new stadium.
The club ended up thanks to finalize the process of obtaining economic backing for the rebuild undertaking by the conclude of this month but Spanish media have claimed that the terms could now have altered mainly because of the scandal.
The club ideas to consider out financial loans of up to 1.5bn euros for the stadium rebuild.
Barcelona’s system to transfer to the city’s Olympic stadium from the start out of following year even though the Camp Nou is redeveloped is established to charge them 94m euros in misplaced matchday revenue due to the fact the 49,000 location is so substantially scaled-down than the 99,000 capability Camp Nou.
Barcelona are hoping the scandal will not impression their financing to redevelop the Camp Nou
UEFA could refuse Barcelona a spot in the Champions League if the club is discovered responsible
The Olympic Stadium also demands all around 20m euros of renovation do the job to make it completely ready to meet up with UEFA benchmarks by the conclude of the summer.
UEFA is the club’s other worry. There is unlikely to be a sporting punishment if they are identified guilty of corruption in Spain with a fine the most possible consequence.
But UEFA could refuse to grant Barcelona a allow to enjoy in the Champions League on the foundation of them acquiring breached article four of their guidelines protect against golf equipment from interfering illegally in the effects of matches.
To day UEFA officials have indicated to Spanish media that this is becoming regarded a domestic affair, and a ban would only transpire at the request of the Spanish Soccer Federation.
