by Barcelona paid €1.4 million to a company owned by former premier league referee José María Enríquez Negreira between 2016 and 2018, when Negreira was vice-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation’s (RFEF) Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) . a position he held from 1994 to 2018.
The information was shared this Wednesday morning by Cadena SER, in the program Què t’hi Jugues, noting that the Catalans had paid the sum in question to the company DASNIL 95 SL, owned by Negreira and whose director was his son, Javier Enriquez Romero.
The investigation took place due to alleged irregularities in the taxation of accounting years referred to the payment years 2016, 2017 and 2018, in which, according to the tax authority, says Cadena SER, Enríquez Negreira “did not present any document in which he provided a service in Barcelona”.
Contacted by Cadena SER, the former referee said that his job consisted only of giving verbal advice to the footballers, explaining to the players the kind of behavior they should have in front of each referee and what they should and could or could not do. do before each.
According to the Spanish press, Enriquez Negreira and his son have already testified before the State, as well as evidence linked to Barcelona.
Meanwhile, and contacted by Spanish newspaper Marca, former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) candidly stated that “all clubs need analysis of matches from a refereeing point of view”, admitting that the Catalan emblem had these records regularly and that it was Enríquez Negreira’s company that made them. Bartomeu also assured, in contact with Cadena SER, that he had put an end to the payments already in place “since at least 2003”, the year he arrived at the club – then under the presidency of Joan Gaspart – due to a policy of cost containment. Contacted by Spanish radio, Gaspart said he was not aware of the case. Laporta, the current president, a position he also held from 2003 to 2011, declined to comment. For their part, sources connected to Sandro Rosell, president from 2010 to 2014, speculated that this type of policy existed at the time.
Otherwise, Barcelona reacted, however, with a statement, not confirming the payments in question. The club only admits that “in the past it engaged the services of an external technical consultant who provided, in video format, technical reports for players in the youth category to the club’s technical secretariat”.
More adds that “the relationship was extended with technical reports relating to professional refereeing to supplement the information required by first and second team technical staff, a common practice in professional football clubs”.
Barcelona also expressed its regret that “this information appears precisely at the best sporting moment of the season” 2022/23.
