Official: FC Barcelona charged with Corruption over payments to former referees chief | UEFA open investigation

GinobiliTheGOAT

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You paid someone you shouldn’t have been. It’s irrelevant what it was for. It’s unethical and a massive conflict of interests but Barcelona knew that and that’s why the method in which it was done is shady as feck.
They overpaid for reports that may be unethical but had no influence on the pitch.
 

Strelok

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For example: In the 2017/2018 season, Suarez clearly fouled Varane in a build up to a Messi goal. The fourth official (Escudero Marín) told the referee (Alejandro Hernández Hernández), or more so shouted, "It's a Suarez foul! It's a Suarez foul" in the communication system but the referee ignored him. It was randomly caught on camera and created a media storm. The fourth official, Escudero Marín, was relegated to the third division (from the Segunda where he was a full on referee), his 7 years progress through the ranks was stopped, and he retired.
Wow, simply just wow. Feck Barca what a dirty club. I'd bet there must be a shit ton of similar incidents that went unrecorded.
 

SirReginald

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They overpaid for reports that may be unethical but had no influence on the pitch.
It’s not the money. If you want reports you go to ex-referee’s. You don’t go to someone with influence amongst current officials.
 

caid

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They overpaid for reports that may be unethical but had no influence on the pitch.
They've taken way to long to produce them for them to be convincing at this point. Release them the next day when this story first came up and ok you've paid about 20 times the normal fee, to someone currently active in the game, off the books, via a pile of shell companies but at least theres something to show for the money. Even a week after and you say they might not have been easy to track down and they wanted to be thorough to get all the stuff they had out.
This kicked off a month ago.
 

Gottabekiddingme

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They've taken way to long to produce them for them to be convincing at this point. Release them the next day when this story first came up and ok you've paid about 20 times the normal fee, to someone currently active in the game, off the books, via a pile of shell companies but at least theres something to show for the money. Even a week after and you say they might not have been easy to track down and they wanted to be thorough to get all the stuff they had out.
This kicked off a month ago.
The documents released are not even linked to Negreira. A lot of misinformation going around. It was from a house search of Josep Contreras who passed recently. Barcelona itself said Negreira reports were verbal, not written.
 

GatoLoco

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We have new information being released almost on a daily basis, and my feeling is that we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg.

Negreira's son leaked to Barça the referee for a cup final three months earlier: "It will be Clos Gómez"

 
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giorno

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The existence of these reports doesn't prove anything either. The prosecution likely has had access to them for some time and pressed charges anyways, which means they believe them to be a cover up for the real reason behind the payments
 

Iker Quesadillas

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The existence of these reports doesn't prove anything either. The prosecution likely has had access to them for some time and pressed charges anyways, which means they believe them to be a cover up for the real reason behind the payments
I think there's a lot of fixation on the "referee reports" thing because it's very salacious, but it misses the point a little bit.

All the invoices we've had access to, the stuff that the tax agency found suspicious, were for "technical videos." I'm not sure we've actually seen any invoices for "referee reports" anywhere.
 

Iker Quesadillas

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Barcelona itself said Negreira reports were verbal, not written.
Negreira said that. Barcelona and Javier Enriquez said they were written.
Javier Enriquez is not under investigation and according to Cadena SER it is because he could corroborate some things he did. So not everything is made up.
 

HisNameIsEarl

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I think there's a lot of fixation on the "referee reports" thing because it's very salacious, but it misses the point a little bit.

All the invoices we've had access to, the stuff that the tax agency found suspicious, were for "technical videos." I'm not sure we've actually seen any invoices for "referee reports" anywhere.
But if those videos existed, would that make paying the refs legal? So all the message is: "if you intend to bribe, be more careful about the cover story, why you are paying the referee."? So they could continue paying them in future, and only take more care about creating some videos?
 

Dansk

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What interest might a club, one that has a habit of paying referees for things, have in knowing ahead of time who's going to officiate their games?

I can certainly think of one reason. In fact, I can only think of one reason. I have a strong hunch that the Negreira payments are just the only payments we know of.
 

Iker Quesadillas

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But if those videos existed, would that make paying the refs legal? So all the message is: "if you intend to bribe, be more careful about the cover story, why you are paying the referee."? So they could continue paying them in future, and only take more care about creating some videos?
I think the trial would have to establish whether the transaction is real beyond 'do the videos exist.'

People have jokingly compared this to claiming you sell a pen for 250 euros along with complementary tickets to a concert (because re-selling tickets is not legal). You cannot get away with that even if the pen exists.
 

FreckBarca

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We have new information being released almost on a daily basis, and my feeling is that we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg.

Negreira's son leaked to Barça the referee for a cup final three months earlier: "It will be Clos Gómez"

This is big. He disclosed to Barca the identity of the ref of the final 3 months before it was publicly disclosed. This contradicts what Iturralde said about Negreira not having any influence of ref appointments. Even his son knew months beforehand FFS.

Also, Barca's 2-1 goal in that game was an offside goal. Funny how that works.

The existence of these reports doesn't prove anything either. The prosecution likely has had access to them for some time and pressed charges anyways, which means they believe them to be a cover up for the real reason behind the payments.
Yeah. This reports prove nothing. Obviously nobody is gonna believe they are worth 7M€. Which is why probably Barca didn't show them the very first day this scandal was revealed. It looks like they were made as an alibi to justify the payments.
It literally is a referee's wiki and some very basic info all put together in what feels like 5 minutes.
 

Iker Quesadillas

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I did not know this until yesterday, but Negreira wrote for Mundo Deportivo under the banner "el juez de LaLiga" in 2019

 

FreckBarca

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I did not know this until yesterday, but Negreira wrote for Mundo Deportivo under the banner "el juez de LaLiga" in 2019

That happened they year his stepped down as the ref VP and Barca stopped paying him. And his son would analyse ref actuations for the TV the same year.

This is explains a little why Barca fans are the way they are. They are tremendously spoiled and misled when it comes to refereering. And Negreira and his son have a lot to do with it.
 

Bepi

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Yeah. This reports prove nothing. Obviously nobody is gonna believe they are worth 7M€. Which is why probably Barca didn't show them the very first day this scandal was revealed. It looks like they were made as an alibi to justify the payments.
It literally is a referee's wiki and some very basic info all put together in what feels like 5 minutes.
Galliani’s shifting lines from Calciopoli trials about Milan involvement: deny in full, deny you knew, deny you instructed the clerk to, deny the clerk was a clerk, feck off the clerk, ok but we were trying to keep it fair, we were victims, we were protecting the integrity of the sport.

(well, it helped to have peak Berlusconi as Italian political lead then… and yet ordinary justice in the subsequent years had to acknowledge the “active and constant checking of referees through Mr Meani under the direct instruction of Mr Galliani, a common practice at times with no direct bribing or influence”)
 

Gottabekiddingme

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The only way the truth will come out in full is if Negreira takes a plea deal (If that sort of thing even exists in Spain)
 

FreckBarca

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The only way the truth will come out in full is if Negreira takes a plea deal (If that sort of thing even exists in Spain)
He has proved he is in the early stages of Alzheimer. He might even elude criminal responsibilities without any plea deal.
 

Snatcho 2

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Everything surrounding this case has an extraordinarily dark aspect to it:

The judge in charge of investigating the Negreira case was robbed at her home this weekend. The assault took place just a few hours after the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office filed its complaint against FC Barcelona last Friday for the payments to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira. According to what police sources have confirmed to El Confidencial, the support magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona went to report the facts this Sunday to a police station of the Mossos d'Esquadra. The robbery took place when the magistrate was inside her home, a ground floor house located in a municipality in the vicinity of Barcelona. Despite this, she did not suffer any personal injury or notice anything unusual. The intruders took cash, jewellery and different items. It is being investigated whether they also took documents or electronic devices on which the judge could keep files related to her work.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espa...ca-robo-casa-jueza-denuncia-fiscalia_3591848/
 

FreckBarca

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Everything surrounding this case has an extraordinarily dark aspect to it:

The judge in charge of investigating the Negreira case was robbed at her home this weekend. The assault took place just a few hours after the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office filed its complaint against FC Barcelona last Friday for the payments to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira. According to what police sources have confirmed to El Confidencial, the support magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona went to report the facts this Sunday to a police station of the Mossos d'Esquadra. The robbery took place when the magistrate was inside her home, a ground floor house located in a municipality in the vicinity of Barcelona. Despite this, she did not suffer any personal injury or notice anything unusual. The intruders took cash, jewellery and different items. It is being investigated whether they also took documents or electronic devices on which the judge could keep files related to her work.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espa...ca-robo-casa-jueza-denuncia-fiscalia_3591848/
Things got ugly quickly for her.
What are the chances this is random?
 

Messier1994

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Things got ugly quickly for her.
What are the chances this is random?
If not random, I would bet on “hooligans”. One positive thing here is that Barca seems limited to corruption, if there were real gangsters behind this it would have been handled differently. Negreira would have been someone that died in a car crash 5 years ago,..
 

Snatcho 2

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If not random, I would bet on “hooligans”. One positive thing here is that Barca seems limited to corruption, if there were real gangsters behind this it would have been handled differently. Negreira would have been someone that died in a car crash 5 years ago,..
The problem is that it is difficult to know whether such burglaries are particularly common in Barcelona. Not long ago a Barça player, Aubameyang, was assaulted and he and his family beaten by unidentified thieves who broke into his house. His jaw was fractured in this incident.

Incidentally, Aubameyang at the time was being heavily attacked by the Barça media and officials because he was opposed to being transferred to Chelsea. Three days after the beating he accepted the deal.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/s...-armed-robbery-his-home-barcelona-2022-08-29/

https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...ameyang-joins-chelsea-after-leaving-barcelona
 

Messier1994

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The problem is that it is difficult to know whether such burglaries are particularly common in Barcelona. Not long ago a Barça player, Aubameyang, was assaulted and he and his family beaten by unidentified thieves who broke into his house. His jaw was fractured in this incident.

Incidentally, Aubameyang at the time was being heavily attacked by the Barça media and officials because he was opposed to being transferred to Chelsea. Three days after the beating he accepted the deal.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/s...-armed-robbery-his-home-barcelona-2022-08-29/

https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...ameyang-joins-chelsea-after-leaving-barcelona
Yeah, and would I rule out that some 'firm' fraction of Barca fans could do whatever, definitely not.

But while I don't think high of Laporta, I think its pretty obvious that he isn't a true gangster. Negreira threatened to uncover the biggest scandal ever in football/sports -- and they just ignored him. From what I've learned watching TV, bad things happen to you if you do that to a real gangster... ;)
 

Ragnar123

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We have new information being released almost on a daily basis, and my feeling is that we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg.

Negreira's son leaked to Barça the referee for a cup final three months earlier: "It will be Clos Gómez"

Iceberg is a really good metaphor here. It shows the superficial knowledge of the majority again and again. Absorb every rumor, no matter how stupid, as if it were the holy grail as long as it's anti barca, right?

Clos Gomez ended his career in that season (16/17) and anybody with 3 braincells knew at that time, that a renowned referee retiring would get the Copa final as his last game. That is common in spain and I'd assume in other countries too. Tabloids play you like a fiddle with such articles to generate klicks and traffic.