Barça amidst a possible refereeing scandal
F.C. Barcelona are once again in the limelight and this time it involves suspicious payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice president of the CTA (Comité Técnico de Árbitros) between 1996 and 2018, which is the refereeing committe of the Spanish FA.
As revealed by the Catalan radio show ‘Què t’hi Jugues’ (Cadena SER) Enríquez Negreira, who was also a former referee, received just under 1,4 million euros from Barça between 2016 and 2018 in three separate payments (€532,728.02 in 2016, €541,752 in 2017 and €318,200 in 2018) to his company, DASNIL 95 SL.
This was uncovered through a tax inspection in which some irregularities where detected in relation to this money. Enríquez Negreira was duly fined yet the Spanish treasury suspected a possible corruption offence because they had no access to any documents proving Negreira was actually providing Barça a service. That’s when the treasury decided to forward the case to the prosecution.
This means that there’s currently an open investigation looking into the matter, so there’s still no final verdict.
To try and bring more light to the matter at hand, let’s take a look at what each of the involved parties had to say.
- Enríquez Negreira
According to Enríquez Negreira’s statement to Cadena SER there are no documents to prove he was providing a service because he assessed Barça verbally, mainly on how the players were expected to behave towards each referee.
Although this clashes with the version of his son Javier Enríquez Romero, the sole administrator of DASNIL 95 SL, who insists he handed Barça actual reports.
- Barça/Laporta
Joan Laporta has put a lot of emphasis in the timing of this information, insisting it’s not a coincidence it’s been revealed when Barça is in good form and just before the Europa League match against Manchester United.
Whereas the club has released a statement explaining that Enríquez Negreira’s company provided technical reports on players from lower divisions in Spain. Later including technical reports related to professional refereeing, which the club states is a common practice among football teams.
- Bartomeu
Given these payments took place while Josep María Bartomeu was the club’s president, he was asked to comment on this topic and said that these reports were already being purchased before his arrival in 2003, specifically from 2001 when Joan Gaspart was president.
He also made sure to point out he was the one to put an end to the contract between Barça and DASNIL 95 SL in 2018, to cut costs and because the sports department wanted to handle it internally.
- Gaspart
Joan Gaspart was slightly vague when asked about his possible involvement: “During my presidency I had no knowledge of these payments. I believe that if I wasn’t aware of these reports, it’s because they weren’t made”.
- CTA/Iturralde
The refereeing committe released a very short statement distancing themselves from Enríquez Negreira, by saying he hasn’t been linked to them since departing in 2018. They also regret any unethical behaviour and assure that no referee or member of the CTA can be involved in any activity that can generate a conflict of interest.
On the other hand, Iturralde González who was a former referee while Enríquez Negreira was vice president, admitted that it’s common for retired referees to provide their assessment to football clubs, as long as they’re not linked to the Spanish FA.
He also explained that Enríquez Negreira had a high position in the CTA because of his friendship with the president Victoriano Sánchez Arminio. Yet he doesn’t think he could have had any real influence on the outcome of the games given he wasn’t in charge of assigning referees.