Football

Tebas on the 'Negreira Case': "This is sporting corruption by Barcelona, but bribery of referees won't be proven"

La Liga President Javier Tebas has commented on the corruption case involving Barcelona and Spanish referee José María Enríquez Negreira. 

"When I first learned about this, my initial thought as a lawyer was that the statute of limitations for sporting events had expired. That's the reality. However, this doesn't mean that we won't investigate the matter. We have filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office because we believe these issues need to be clarified as soon as possible.

In my personal opinion, and I state this clearly, it has not yet been proven that this money reached the referees, and I don’t think it will be proven because the situation was not quite like that. Barcelona paid Negreira for his reports, as they claim, but I don’t believe that either. I think the club paid because they believed it could influence referee appointments. This is sporting corruption, but not at the level of bribery of referees — that won’t be proven.

Clearly, they acted wrongly, and I believe Barcelona will be sanctioned, but not as harshly as what is being reported in Madrid," Tebas said in an interview with The Wild Project.

It is worth recalling that last spring, the Barcelona prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit against the local club and its former presidents Josep Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell in relation to possible corruption involving payments to the former vice-president of the technical refereeing committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), José María Enríquez Negreira. According to the prosecution, Barcelona illegally paid 7.3 million euros to the official from 2001 to 2018 to gain referees' favor in La Liga matches.

In May this year, a Barcelona court dismissed the charges against the club. In August, Real Madrid requested the investigation into Barcelona to be extended until March 2025.