UEFA opens an investigation into FC Barcelona for the Negreira case
Euskaraz irakurri: UEFA Bartzelona ikertzen hasi da, Negreira auziagatik
The Uefawhat is the highest body of European footballhas announced this Thursday that it has started a investigation to FC Barcelonaby a “potential violation” of its “legal framework”in connection with the call Negreira casewhich investigates the Spanish Justice.
In accordance with its Ethics and Disciplinary Regulations, UEFA has appointed disciplinary inspectors to conduct the investigation, as confirmed in a brief statement, in which it indicates that it will provide more information in due course. UEFA regulations establish that, when an investigation is launched, the affected parties are informed, except in the case that such notification is not considered appropriate. In addition, investigations are carried out through written inquiries, and, if necessary, by questioning people, although other investigative procedures may also be used, such as inspections, requesting documents and obtaining expert opinions. In the event that it is estimated that an infringement has been committed, the opening of a file is requested.
On February 24, nine days after the investigation launched by the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office was made public, UEFA requested information on the case from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF); According to Andreu Camps, general secretary of the RFEF, the Spanish Federation sent UEFA all the available documentation, as well as its willingness to continue collaborating.
The RFEF is one of the organizations that has announced that it will appear in the caseonce admitted for processing by the Investigating Court number 1 of Barcelona the complaint of the Prosecutor’s Office for the payments from FC Barcelona to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira. Real Madrid and the Higher Sports Council (CSD) have also confirmed that they will attend, as LaLiga has already done.
The investigation is a consequence of the inspection that the Tax Agency initiated in July 2019 against FC Barcelona for the Corporate Tax for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and the Value Added Tax for 2015, 2016 and 2017, for the payments made in relation to the invoices issued by companies linked to Enríquez Negreira. The Tax Agency transferred its suspicions to the Prosecutor’s Office, which, in May 2022, opened an investigation, and on March 10 filed a complaint in the Barcelona Investigating Court number 1 against FC Barcelona, its former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu, and Enríquez Negreira, Óscar Grau and Albert Soler, for a continuous crime of corruption in the sports field.
The court admitted it for processing on March 15.and also the appearance of LaLiga and the complaint filed by the referee Xavier Estrada Fernández.
According to the complaint, the Barcelona entity, through the presidents Rosell and Bartomeu, “reached and maintained an agreement, strictly confidential, with José María Enríquez Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, money exchange (7.3 million euros between 2001 and 2018) carried out actions tending to favor FC Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches that the club played”.
A week ago, Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, which is the highest body in world football, acknowledged that he is concerned about the situation generated by the Negreira case in Spain, and said that “it is not good for football”. and that it is necessary to “analyze what happened to see how it can be solved”. “Of course I observe everything that happens in national teams and clubs, and when there are negative situations we are concerned, because the clubs, especially the big ones, do a lot for football, not only for the city or in the country, but in the the whole world. We are all human, we make mistakes and what happened is going to be analyzed, for example in Spain, to see how it can be solved,” said Infantino, after the Congress in which he was re-elected president.
The Uefa already sanctioned the Olympic Marseille with the exclusion of the Champions League 1994-95, after confirming that the club had bought a league match against Valenciennes and that the French Federation withdrew the 1993-94 League champion title. Later, he prohibited the participation in his competitions to the anderlechtfor a case related to the purchase of games in the 1998-99 season, and also sanctioned the Pobeda (Macedonia), with an eight-year ban from participating in European competitions, for manipulating the result of a match in the previous round of the Champions League, in 2004.
Source: Eitb
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