While Fútbol Club Barcelona tries to recover from so many open fronts, the courts are in charge of reminding it of its ties to the past.
In fact, the number one investigative court in Barcelona has already received the report that it requested from the Civil Guard regarding the ‘Negreira case’. In this, advancing through the newspaper ‘El Mundo’, the Armed Institute concludes that the Arbitration Technical Committee (CTA) directed by Victoriano Sánchez Arminio and that had José María Enríquez Negreira as second in command, had an “irregular operation”. So much so that, according to the Civil Guard, the arbitrations “would not have always had an impartial sports backing.”
Barcelona, and for nearly two decades, paid some 7.5 million euros to Negreira’s companies. Joan Laporta, current Barça president, argued the payments in 629 “important” reports and 43 CD’s made by Javier Enríquez, son of the former number two of the referees.
The Civil Guard, always according to that report made public by El Mundo, mistrusts these reports. “Your services are not covered by documentary support beyond invoices”the researchers collect.
Beyond the fact that the Civil Guard emphasizes that it has not received the specific and adequate documentary support that justifies the payments to the Negreira companies, nor has “the identity of the professionals who would have developed the services” been provided, alludes to the Meritorious to the real power that José María Enríquez Negreira could have and his influence on the First Division referees. “It must be taken into account that only First Division referees can become international referees with the salary increase that this entails (…). In addition, the fees depend on the total number of matches refereed, which is the decision of the CTA. The CTA itself is in charge of punishing the referees for their mistakes or designating them for the big games“, settles the report that is part of the investigation of the case.
“Never in my life did I feel that I was benefited”
The Barcelona first team coach, Xavi Hernández, questioned this Saturday for the information, insisted on his preaching: “Never in my life did I feel that they benefited me, neither in 17 years in the first team nor now as a coach. I totally disagree with the Civil Guard”.
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UEFA admitted Barcelona to the Champions League this season, but also warned the Barça club that it would have an “obligation” to keep the Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors proactively informed of the progress of the ongoing investigations and to facilitate all documents and information requested.
The European entity, in fact, warned the entity that the procedure could be “resumed ex officio” or at the request of its investigatorswhich could send a new report to the UEFA Appeals Body when they consider that the admission or exclusion of Barça in European competitions should be re-evaluated in the future.