The LaLiga institution, which includes the 1st and 2nd league clubs in Spain, reacted to the Barcelona Club, which was revealed to have paid the company owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice president of the Referee Technical Board.
In the written statement, signed by 40 of the 42 clubs affiliated with LaLiga (excluding Real Madrid and Barcelona), it was emphasized that the allegations that the Barcelona Club paid to get information about the referees were “extremely serious”.
LaLiga clubs, stating that they oppose any form of outside payment for the referees, deny the incidents involving Barcelona and are very concerned about the allegations, promised to work actively to expose the irregularities related to the referee scandal, which is publicly known as the “Negreira case”.
It was noteworthy that Real Madrid Club did not sign the aforementioned declaration, apart from Barcelona.
While the accounts of the company named DASNIL 95 SL, owned by Negreira, who served as the vice president of the Referee Technical Board of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) between 1994-2018, were controlled by the Finance, the Barcelona Club paid a total of 1 million 685 thousand 142 Euros to this company in 2016-2018. It was revealed that he made the payment and the information on the subject was leaked to the Spanish press.
Negreira, in his statement to the prosecutor’s office and in the statements he made to the Spanish press, said that they provided verbal consultancy services to Barcelona, that they always acted impartially and that there was no information flow that could favor the Catalan club.
Barcelona Club President Joan Laporta, on the other hand, claimed that the news on the subject was not a coincidence during this period and announced that they would take legal action to protect the rights of the club if necessary, but left the questions of the journalists unanswered about the controversial payments.
In a statement to reporters today, Laporta said, targeting LaLiga President Javier Tebas, “I will not give Mr. Tebas the pleasure of giving up being president of Barcelona. Tebas is trying to control Barcelona from afar.” said.
While the RFEF is investigating the allegations, according to the current disciplinary regulation, if it is determined that he has paid the referees to gain benefits, there is a possibility that Barcelona will be fined, as well as relegated or even banned from the league for up to 5 years.
Source: AA