Sergi Albertthe former Catalan referee, who served as a commentator on TV-3, declared before the Judicial Police Unit that he had “knowledge” that one of Enríquez Negreira’s companies “sold promotional objects to the Royal Spanish Federation, to the Catalan Federation and to the Vizcaya Federation”, upon finding out “by chance from the secretary of President Ángel María Villar, called Dori.” In addition, Albert also revealed that the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) was part of “the five people who most “power they had” in that establishment.
In that sense, Eduardo Iturralde González, the former Basque referee and current commentator for Cadena SER, testified in the official offices of the Civil Guard Command in Bilbao. He began by saying that the CTA “was very presidential because it was led by Sánchez Arminio and the technical director Díaz Vega” and that the referees “were not aware of Negreira’s influence.”
“If these payments, on the other hand, were authorized by different people at different times, then there could be an intention to influence the arbitrators.”
Former referee
Then, Iturralde revealed that “if Sánchez Arminio had known, he would have cut and fired Negreira” emphasizing that those “arbitration reports are useless and have hardly any economic value, so he considers that this service paid by the Barcelona Football Club is not can be justified”, in addition to explaining that the arbitration group “found out about these payments when Cadena SER published the first news in February 2023”, while adding that “if these payments, on the other hand, were authorized by different people at different moments in time, then there could be an intention to influence the referees.
In his statement, Sergi Albert revealed the other four people, in addition to Enríquez Negreira, who dominated the arbitration. Were Vicente Acebedo, Victoriano Sánchez Arminio and the two remaining vice presidents (Óscar Medín and Ángel Franco). These five leaders “exercised total control over the appointment of informants, scores, referee promotions and relegations, proposals for international referees and direct appointments of events organized by the RFEF, such as the HM the King Cup.”
Gaspart, Parera and Contreras
When asked what could be the reasons why Barcelona hired the then vice president of the CTA, he maintains that “at the time there were some people linked to the club (Joan Gaspart, Antón Parera and Josep Contreras) who decided to allocate club funds to some objectives” that Albert himself is unaware of. Using those referee reports that were addressed directly to the Barça entity. And the former Catalan referee remembers that Enríquez Negreira tried to get his son to benefit from the business, so he decided to involve him.
When asked if Negreira received payment from the CTA or the RFEF for those functions performed, he replied that “they did not have a regulated salary, but they did receive allowances, travel expenses, and representation expenses for an amount that was established by the administration department. of the federation”. Not only that.
“He took advantage of who his father was”
Sergi Albert was also asked if the former CTA leader actively participated in the previous elections. match or accompanying the referee team on some occasions. Then, the former Catalan referee responded that he did and that “sometimes he had dinner before the game at his current wife’s restaurant, not knowing the name of the establishment.” Although it is revealed that the refereeing leadership and the referees themselves were unaware that Enríquez Negreira was working for Barça at that time.
If he could not go to those events prior to the matches then “his son Javier Enríquez would attend”, although he also specified that he does not believe that his father could influence any refereeing action. But he has emphasized that Javier Enriquez “He used who his father was,” in addition to working for Luis Aragonés’ staff during his time as coach and given his relationship with the father’s CTA, he collaborated “in the preparation of the circuits for the physical tests to motivational talks to the own referees”. And that he acted, as Sergi Albert revealed in his statement, “with referees and assistant referees from the First and Second Division.”
‘Hey, chicken, whoever you think you are, be careful with the comments you make, something could happen to you.'”
Former vice president of the CTA
Related news
Sergi Albert also recalled in his statement that in 1994, and when he was working as a commentator on TV3, he was summoned by Enríquez Negreira himself at the headquarters of the Catalan Referees Committee in the presence of Casajuana Rifá (president of that committee at the time), Manuel Vico Díaz and Antonio Mazorra Freire -deceased-. In that meeting, Negreira himself told him: ‘Hey, chicken, whoever you think you are, be careful with the comments you make because something could happen to you.'”
“Get a sporting benefit”
Up to a total of 21 referees or former referees testified before the Civil Guard. One of them, José Luis González González, He slips that Barça had hired Negreira “because I understand that they wanted to obtain some type of sporting benefit”, underlining that, perhaps, the former vice president of the CTA “would make them understand that he had some power over the referees.” Furthermore, he stated that both he and his son “took advantage of the position” to obtain financial benefit.