A Spanish state prosecutor is probing Barcelona Football club’s payment of millions of dollars over several years to a company that belonged to the vice president of the refereeing committee in Spain.
According to SER Catalunya, a Spanish radio station that broke the story during the week, said Barcelona had paid 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million) from 2016-18 to a company belonging to former referee José María Enríquez Negreira, who was a part of the Spanish soccer federation’s refereeing committee from 1994-2018.
In response to that initial report, Barcelona issued a statement saying it was “aware of the investigations into payments of external companies.” The club said it had hired the company as an external consultant to produce “reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain” and for “reports related to professional refereeing.”
But new reports of even more money flowing from Camp Nou’s coffers to Enríquez Negreira emerged Friday in leading Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo.
According to El Pais, the payments by Barcelona to Enríquez Negreira reached 7 million euros ($7.5 million) and started back in 2001. If so, that would mean Barcelona kept paying Enríquez Negreira during different club presidents, including from 2003-10 under the first term of current president Joan Laporta, who again took charge in 2021.
Meanwhile, El Mundo reported that Enríquez Negreira had threatened then-Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu to create a “scandal” when the club decided to stop paying for his company’s services in 2018.
According to reports, Barca has started its own investigation with outside help to “guarantee maximum efficiency.”
The Spanish soccer federation and its referee committee have said that they will fully collaborate with the investigation. The federation said Enríquez Negreira has had no role in the organization since it changed administration in 2018.
