The Prosecutor’s Office will denounce FC Barcelona and its former president Bartomeu for payments to Negreira
The prosecution will present a complaint against the former president of FC Barcelona Josep Maria Bartomeu and against the club itselfas a legal person, for the Millionaire payments to former arbitration leader José María Enríquez Negreira. As the newspaper El País has advanced and legal sources have confirmed to the EFE agency, the complaint, which will be presented shortly in the Courts of Barcelona, accuses to the azulgrana club and whoever was its president of a crime of corruption in business. The current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laportahas reiterated that his club “has never bought referees, nor has it had the intention of doing so”, and the Government of Spain will study if person in the procedure.
The complaint is the result of the investigations that the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office has kept open for nearly a year for the alleged payments to Negreira, who, through a company, has received almost seven million euros from FC Barcelona for allegedly verbal advice to the club. The Prosecutor’s Office has already drawn up a draft complaint, which is now being reviewed by the State Attorney General’s Office, in which it accuses FC Barcelona of a crime of corruption in business in its continued modality.
The Public Ministry had opened proceedings since May 2022, which it entrusted to the National Police, for alleged fiscal irregularities committed by the Negreira company, which exposed the millionaire payments received by the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Arbitrators ( CTA).
The Prosecutor’s Office will present its complaint for the payments to the arbitrator in the Courts of Barcelona. It cannot be ruled out that the case ends up in the hands of the Investigating Court number 1 of the Catalan capital, which last week received a complaint from the VAR referee Estrada Fernández against Negreira; the complaint has not yet been admitted for processing.
In line with that, the current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laportahas reiterated that the club he directs “has never bought referees, nor has it had the intention of doing so”, and has indicated again that, shortly, it will call a press conference to give the pertinent explanations on the Negreira case.
In parallel, the Minister of Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain, Miquel Iceta, has assured that the Spanish Executive will decide if it is convenient to appear in the procedure at the moment in which the Prosecutor’s Office finishes its proceedings and formalizes the accusation in the case in court. In that same context, the Spanish Minister of Justice, Pilar Llophas defended that there is “zero tolerance” for corruption, “in any field; also, logically, in sports, when it occurs.”
Source: Eitb
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