Sophia
Barcelona, Spain – The football world watches intently as the Negreira case, a scandal accusing FC Barcelona of sporting corruption, officially begins. At the heart of the controversy are payments totaling €7.5 million ($8.8 million) made by the club over 17 years to a company linked to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of Spain’s referees committee (CTA).
Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who presided over the club from 2014 to 2020, has broken his silence after giving testimony, asserting that there was “no corruption or bribery to answer.”
The Genesis of the Scandal
The allegations first surfaced in 2023, revealing that payments to Negreira’s company ceased in 2018, coinciding with his departure from the CTA. Barcelona has acknowledged these payments, which spanned multiple presidencies, including Bartomeu’s, Sandro Rosell’s, and current chief Joan Laporta’s initial tenure from 2003–10.
The club has consistently maintained that these payments were for legitimate consultancy services and detailed reports intended to support the coaching staff’s work.
Bartomeu’s Defense: “Many Issues Disproved”
Emerging from court this week, Bartomeu addressed reporters, confidently stating that many of the accusations against him and Barcelona have been “disproved.”
“Some of us who were involved in the club during these years, from 2013–18, have testified,” Bartomeu explained. “It has become clear that many of the theories that have been floated have been disproved. Many issues have been clarified. Above all, it has been clarified that there were sports advisory services, referee reports, and pre and post-match advisory services for both the first team and the reserve team, and that this advisory services had a financial compensation to pay.”
Bartomeu, who oversaw a period of significant financial challenges for Barcelona, including the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, adamantly denied any payments were made to influence individual referees.
“We Don’t Pay to Influence: We Pay for Sports Coverage”
“We don’t pay to influence: we pay for sports coverage,” he asserted. “It’s always been clear that some quarters have tried to tarnish the best Barça [team] in history. What is clear is that we’ve had great successes, we’ve had the best player in history [Lionel Messi], and we deserved to win.”
He further echoed sentiments previously expressed by former president Sandro Rosell, emphasizing the club’s achievements were earned on merit. “I say it again, and former president Rosell has also said it…we had the best team in the world and Barça has won on its own merits all the championships and titles we were successful in achieving.”
The Public Prosecutor’s Stance
Despite Bartomeu’s defense, the public prosecutor’s office in 2023 presented a contrasting view. Their claim states: “FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with José María Enríquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees.”
As the Negreira trial progresses, the football world will be watching closely to see how these conflicting narratives unfold and what the ultimate implications will be for one of the sport’s most storied clubs.
