In Spain, the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona filed a criminal complaint against the Barcelona Club, its two former presidents and some of its executives, which appeared to have paid a company owned by former CTA Vice President Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira to obtain information about the referees.
The payments made by Barcelona to this company, which emerged after the Ministry of Finance examined some accounts related to the DASNIL 95 SL company owned by Negreira, on the suspicion of tax evasion, sued the Catalan club.
It is claimed that Barcelona paid a total of 7.3 million euros to the CTA between 2001-2018 and received information about the referees in return.
After its investigation, the prosecutor’s office concluded that there was sufficient evidence to file a lawsuit against the Barcelona Club, other than Negreira, against former presidents Jose Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell and two former managers.
The prosecutor’s office, which was accused of corruption in sports, irregularity in the management of the club and issuing fake commercial documents, started a legal initiative to file a lawsuit.
Barcelona Club President Joan Laporta said in a statement she made recently that she did not know Negreira and said, “Barcelona has never tried to buy a referee. We have neither bought a referee nor attempted to do so. It certainly did not happen. Barcelona will emerge unscathed from these allegations. ” he said.
According to Article 286 of the Spanish Penal Code, the crimes in question include imprisonment from 6 months to 4 years, prohibition from private commercial activities from 1 year to 6 years, and fines.