There were rumors that the referee was bribed by the Spanish club Barcelona. Now that rumor turned into a complaint. The team has been formally accused of corruption for bribing Jose Maria Enriques Negreira, the former head of the referees' technical committee.
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The matter was heard in a court in Barcelona on Friday.
The former Barcelona club official and Negreira are accused of corruption, breach of trust and falsifying business records, the hearing said.
Negreira was the Vice President of the Technical Committee of Referees in Spain from 1994 to 2018. Spain's prosecutor's office has learned that Barcelona paid his company 'DASNIL Ninety Five' between 2016 and 2018.
According to the Spanish media, Barcelona paid that company 500,320,728 euros in 2016, 541,752 euros in 2017 and 318,200 euros in 2018. The investigation began after the company's tax audit and Negreira and his son were questioned by the prosecutor's office. After that interrogation, the lawyers of the state made a complaint.
Earlier, Negreira defended himself and said that he did not give any advantage to Barcelona during his tenure. He was paid by the club for consulting work. There was advice on how the players should behave with the referee during the match. Apart from this, he used to advise on what they could or could not do depending on who the referee of the match would be.
However, Negreira could not show any evidence that he advised Barcelona in exchange for money.
According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, Negreira told the Spanish tax agency that Barcelona's aim behind the payment was to have "neutral" referees in their matches.
38.012 SRY