February 16, (THEWILL) – La Liga President, Javier Tebas, has confirmed that Barcelona will not face any sporting sanctions for payments allegedly made to a company part-owned by former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
As THEWILL reported, it was alleged that Barcelona paid €1.4m between 2016 and 2018 to Negreira’s company DASNIL 95 SL in return for written reports and DVD assessments of referees before games. But, La Blaugrana have strongly denied any wrongdoing, stating that they had previously hired an external consultant, who provided video of youth players from other teams and technical reports related to professional refereeing.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has begun a “request for information” from Barcelona and the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), of which Negreira was a long-time vice-president.
However, while criminal action has not been ruled out, statute of limitations laws in Spain make it impossible to punish clubs for offences that are over three years old. Tebas has stated that “criminal jurisdiction is another issue” and that the prosecutor’s office is investigating the events that occurred and whether there may be a possible crime of corruption between individuals in terms of match-fixing.
La Liga will wait for the results of the investigation before deciding whether to take any further action.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
