The refereeing scandal involving the top Spanish football club FC Barcelona is coming to a head.
As the responsible Supreme Court of Catalonia announced in a statement on Thursday, a search of the premises of the country’s referee headquarters was ordered. No arrests are planned, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil responsible for the search told the AFP news agency.
In March, the public prosecutor’s office charged FC Barcelona, former club officials and ex-referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira with “corruption”, “breach of trust” and “falsified documents”. The allegations made by the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office were directed in particular against Barca as a legal entity and against the former club presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.
The background is millions in payments up to 2018 to a company Negreiras, who was vice president of the referee committee at the time. Both sides have admitted the business ties but deny allegations of corruption. According to Negreira, his company gave the club verbal advice on how the players should behave towards certain referees. Barca described such advisory services as “normal”.