Referee Headquarters
Barcelona have been charged with suspected bribery for payments worth more than €7 million ($7.3m) made to companies linked to the former vice president of the refereeing committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, judicial sources have told Spanish news agency EFE.
Former Barça presidents Josep María Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell also stand accused of the same charges, as do Negreira and his son, Javier Enríquez Romero.
Barça had previously been charged with alleged corruption in sport, corruption in business, false administration and the falsification of commercial documents.
Meanwhile, EFE also report that police searched the referees’ office at the Royal Spanish Football Federation [RFEF] in Madrid on Thursday for documentation in relation to the case.
A Spanish court first accepted a complaint lodged by prosecutors against Barça, their former presidents and the Negreiras in March and opened an investigation.
The addition of the bribery charges could now speed up a process that has been ongoing since February, when the payments were first revealed.
In Spain, a bribery offence only requires proof that a public official or authority has requested money or some compensation to make an influenced decision within the scope of their powers.
Barça paid Negreira’s companies more than €7m between 2001 and 2018 while he was the vice president of the refereeing committee. He had previously been a referee in the Spanish top flight.
Barca president Joan Laporta has said the payments were for “technical reports about referees” and denied the club has ever “bought referees or influence.”
However, prosecutors accused Rosell and Bartomeu of having an agreement with Negreira in which “he would carry out actions aimed at favouring Barca in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club and thus in the results of the competitions.”
Rosell was Barca president from 2010 to 2014 before Bartomeu replaced him. After six years at the helm of the Catalan club, Bartomeu resigned in 2020, with Laporta elected as his replacement in 2021.
Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez addressed the story in a news conference on Thursday.
“You know my opinion,” Xavi said. “I have never had the feeling that the club have benefitted from refereeing. Never.
“I don’t have time to reflect on much more than that, I’m focused on sporting issues. Next week there will be another Negreira story, in 15 days another and then more a month.”