Judge Finds FC Barcelona Benefited From Referees’ Systemic Corruption

A Spanish magistrate overseeing ‘Caso Negreira’ maintains that payments FC Barcelona made to the Former Vice President of the Technical Referees Committee (CTA) caused “systemic corruption” in the organization which harmed the Catalans’ rivals including Real Madrid, according to El Confidencial.

Barca were charged for “continued corruption between individuals in the sports field” by the Barcelona provincial prosecutor’s office in March after it emerged that they paid a firm owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira at least €7.3 million ($7.9 million) from 2001 to 2018.

President Joan Laporta has continually maintained that the La Liga champions have done nothing wrong, with the payments made for honest consultation work.

Before the weekend, however, with Barca already drawn by UEFA to play in this season’s edition of the Champions League, El Mundo reported how the Spanish Civil Guard concluded the ex-president of the CTA, Victoriano Sanchez Arminio, and his vice Negreira ran an “irregular operation” there with officiating decisions not always “impartial” from a sporting perspective.

On Tuesday, with clubs currently out of action thanks to the international break, El Confidencial reports that it has had access to resolutions from magistrate judge Joaquin Aguirre, known as ‘autos’ in Spain, where he maintains that the payments made to Negreira caused “systemic corruption”.

Furthermore, Aguirre believes that Real Madrid and “any other First Division team that has coincided with FC Barcelona during the years under investigation” can consider themselves “harmed by the alleged plot” if alleged systemic corruption can be proven.

In a further headache to Barca, legal proceedings will reportedly be re-ordered so that a part of them focuses exclusively on payments Barca made to Negreira and his son Jose Maria Enriquez Romeo.

Aguirre wishes to explore whether the payments can be considered a crime, even in lieu of evidence of specific referees being paid to alter the outcome of particular games which has thus far not materialized.

New evidence will emerge to accelerate the investigation in general reports El Confidencial, and this should be a concern to Barca as UEFA informed them this could result in reopening their case when Xavi Hernandez’s men were “provisionally admitted to take part” in the Champions League this term back in July.

The European football governing body stressed that a “future decision on admission/exclusion” is still possible, and new evidence might effect Barca’s participation in the next edition of the competition providing they qualify.

As of yet, Barca haven’t responded to the reports from El Confidencial and El Mundo.