Paying for neutrality.
In terms of excuses. That is up there with, the money was just resting in my account.
In terms of excuses. That is up there with, the money was just resting in my account.
Official: FC Barcelona charged with Corruption over payments to former referees chief | UEFA open investigation
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It doesn’t even make sense. If they think everyone is against them then going from negative to neutral is a plus for them which makes the payments a bribe.
Common Barca knew everyone was against them so they paid the refs to be on an even playing field, nothing to see here.
Are we sure about that? That would mean proving any payment was a bribe would be impossible if nothing was written down?
Shutup Barça fanboy.
So what???!
They paid money to ensure that everything is fair and neutral. I don't see the issue.
I'm sure the refs were impartial and neutral after these payments to their VP, not damaging to the shiny image of FC Barcelona.
Gut feeling says this is Franco and Florentino planning this to tarnish Barca's impeccable reputation.
I heard he was buried alive and spent 4 decades underground plotting against Barca, he escaped when they moved his body, Madrid's new stadium is actually a new tomb built to protect him and he's been quickly putting his decades of planning into action, secretly plotting Barca's downfall with Florentino in it's underbelly ever since. First the financial issues that forced them to get rid of Messi, now this.
It seems they won't stop until Barca are completely ruined.
They can always cook up something like some report. I am sure they were smart enough to generate something for this possibility.
In my past life, I have had to do some activities similar to what Barca has done for work. It's a skill -- I have bribed policemen in 5 countries --- and with that, you know how to make sure you cover your arse.
That's what I also said a few pages earlier before getting kinda shut down by many Caftards
Exactly. The mentioning of 'paying for neutrality' is a admittance that the payments were to influence referees in some capacity. Now if you're inclined to believe this, then there needs to be proof other clubs did this. However, even then Barca won't be off the hook, as they still paid for influence, which is a form of bribery. Additionally, there is no proof of any work being done and then there is the data that shows that Barca during a significant amount of time recieved a disproportionate amount of decisions in their favour.
The argument that the payments don't mean anything isn't true. Most bribes aren't documented, which is why the lack of evidence of reports etc, is very damning.
See that's where you're right!
Leaked Barca documents actually claim Franco is still well alive, currently residing in a secret lair under the Bernabeu, with plans to move to an even bigger office when the new stadium is completed. I believe them for what its worth, FC Barca have no reason to make up such rumors.
Moreover, reports say the only reason Flo rejected Ancelotti's request for additional transfers in January is because he is re-directing all of Madrid's funds into R&D for cloning tech. It seems Madrid want to research cloning to replicate Franco and Flo so that they can live on forever, for the sole reason of corrupting FC Barca's mes que un club status. Its all a conspiracy, and you people are dumb enough to fall for it.
This makes more sense than Nieman’s posts.
Just makes too much sense for it not to be true.
Mes que un club, a criminal organization. That’s what describes UEFAlona
Difficult not to agree
There are more documents released today. In this case, from the prosecution office.
Probably not as important as a tweet from a random Twitter user with a white shirt as main picture and a mourinho related nickname, but it could be interesting.
You can find them in this article:
https://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2023/03/27/64216ba6268e3e0c048b4572.html
Translation of Marca's article:
----------------------------------------------------------------
The great unknown in all this Negreira case is what Barcelona bought throughout these years with the payment of 7.5 million euros to the companies of the former vice president of the Technical College of Referees and his son. It is evident that there were arbitration reports as it is clearly reflected in the summary of this process and as this newspaper has already reported. However, that amount of money far exceeds the value of those reports and the recording of some videos, as is also accredited.
Likewise, match-buying through referees must be ruled out. Although there is a lot of speculation in this regard in some media, the reality is that there is no evidence of this. In fact, the Prosecutor's Office acknowledges this in its complaint. However, it does emphasize some of the "favors" that Enríquez Negreira, in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA, could have done for Barcelona for the payment of these large sums of money.
And those favors or recommendations as the Prosecutor's Office qualifies them, can be focused on soccer aspects where the CTA can enter or have some influence. And these range from the appointment of the judges of the Competition Committee, Barcelona has always complained that it is full of madridistas, to the extension of licenses of first team players or the recommendation of which plays (expulsions, cards, etc...) are worth appealing or not. This is the text that appears in the report of the Prosecutor's Office:
PICTURE (i cannot post it)
"JOSE MARIA ENRIQUEZ NEGREIRA, through DASNIL, had a verbal agreement with FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA that he kept strictly confidential, also for the administrator of the company, his son Javier Enriquez Romero, whose only function was to elaborate small arbitration reports requested by order of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The relationship between DASNIL-JOSE MARIA ENRIQUEZ NEGREIRA and FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA was at the presidential level. This agreement included advice or recommendations from a managerial point of view. For a better understanding, an example of a recommendation could be:
-That a request be made to expand the number of federative licenses so that teams could have more than 25 players each season.
-Request that the Competition Committee (responsible for player sanctions) not be composed entirely of judges from Madrid.
-That the Club should have an interlocutor with the Federation to take care of institutional relations.
-That the Club should always send a representative to the farewell tributes to First Division referees at the end of their careers.
-To recommend which yellow cards or expulsions could be appealed after a match, because the referee's decision could be technically questionable.
-To inform or warn of any institutional visit from the RFEF or the CTA so that the Club would maintain good institutional relations.
-Keep the Club informed of possible interests or disagreements between the Federation and the LFP (Professional Football League), or describe candidates for president of the LFP".
In this aspect, and also according to the Prosecutor's brief, Enríquez Negreira "shared his know how (criterion, knowledge, experience) as a former international referee and federative manager for many years.
----------------------
My personal opinion is that there has to bee something more (I posted a opinion a few days/weeks ago), because those "favours" are very typical. Typical lobbying.
- The 1st apply to every team and I don't think it makes a lot of sense unless you are Chelsea and own like a 100 players :/ This would be unethical lobbying, at worst. I don't think this changed anyway.
- The 2nd is surprising by itself. It says that the Competition Committee favours Real Madrid. Well, there are 3 people (you can find a lot of articles) in the Comitte and one is a member of Real Madrid (in terms of people who pay for having a seat in the stadium, etc.) and another one is an ex Real Madrid member. Exactly, 2 out of 3 members of the Committe that decide sanctions in LaLiga are/were members of Real Madrid. Bad job by Negreria, they were a decade ago and they are still there. It might (or might not, all of them had very good CV in private corporations) explain some things.
- Every club has it, usually ex referees. This kind of relationship should be public and not hidden. If not illegal, this is unethic.
- Every club has it and it doesn't change anything. Besides, Committe of Competition decide it anyway, and 2/3 had a strong relationship with Real Madrid.
- Another nothingburger. You can pay a 100 bucks for it.
- Looks that they wanted to have ears inside the League/Federation (they hate each other). This is unethical in the worst case scenario.
If these are all the "favours" the Prosecutor think Negreria was paid for... It would pretty much reduce the level of accusations (for Barca itself, the corruption at personal level is still there). Negreria did a very bad job in these matters so it is "strange" that he wasnt'f "fired" before.
I don't put a hand in fire for anyone and more documentation will come, but this is not very strong in the matter of "referee bribing".
We will see.
Probably not as important as a tweet from a random Twitter user with a white shirt as main picture and a mourinho related nickname, but it could be interesting.
You can find them in this article:
https://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2023/03/27/64216ba6268e3e0c048b4572.html
Translation of Marca's article:
----------------------------------------------------------------
The great unknown in all this Negreira case is what Barcelona bought throughout these years with the payment of 7.5 million euros to the companies of the former vice president of the Technical College of Referees and his son. It is evident that there were arbitration reports as it is clearly reflected in the summary of this process and as this newspaper has already reported. However, that amount of money far exceeds the value of those reports and the recording of some videos, as is also accredited.
Likewise, match-buying through referees must be ruled out. Although there is a lot of speculation in this regard in some media, the reality is that there is no evidence of this. In fact, the Prosecutor's Office acknowledges this in its complaint. However, it does emphasize some of the "favors" that Enríquez Negreira, in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA, could have done for Barcelona for the payment of these large sums of money.
And those favors or recommendations as the Prosecutor's Office qualifies them, can be focused on soccer aspects where the CTA can enter or have some influence. And these range from the appointment of the judges of the Competition Committee, Barcelona has always complained that it is full of madridistas, to the extension of licenses of first team players or the recommendation of which plays (expulsions, cards, etc...) are worth appealing or not. This is the text that appears in the report of the Prosecutor's Office:
PICTURE (i cannot post it)
"JOSE MARIA ENRIQUEZ NEGREIRA, through DASNIL, had a verbal agreement with FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA that he kept strictly confidential, also for the administrator of the company, his son Javier Enriquez Romero, whose only function was to elaborate small arbitration reports requested by order of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The relationship between DASNIL-JOSE MARIA ENRIQUEZ NEGREIRA and FUTBOL CLUB BARCELONA was at the presidential level. This agreement included advice or recommendations from a managerial point of view. For a better understanding, an example of a recommendation could be:
-That a request be made to expand the number of federative licenses so that teams could have more than 25 players each season.
-Request that the Competition Committee (responsible for player sanctions) not be composed entirely of judges from Madrid.
-That the Club should have an interlocutor with the Federation to take care of institutional relations.
-That the Club should always send a representative to the farewell tributes to First Division referees at the end of their careers.
-To recommend which yellow cards or expulsions could be appealed after a match, because the referee's decision could be technically questionable.
-To inform or warn of any institutional visit from the RFEF or the CTA so that the Club would maintain good institutional relations.
-Keep the Club informed of possible interests or disagreements between the Federation and the LFP (Professional Football League), or describe candidates for president of the LFP".
In this aspect, and also according to the Prosecutor's brief, Enríquez Negreira "shared his know how (criterion, knowledge, experience) as a former international referee and federative manager for many years.
----------------------
My personal opinion is that there has to bee something more (I posted a opinion a few days/weeks ago), because those "favours" are very typical. Typical lobbying.
- The 1st apply to every team and I don't think it makes a lot of sense unless you are Chelsea and own like a 100 players :/ This would be unethical lobbying, at worst. I don't think this changed anyway.
- The 2nd is surprising by itself. It says that the Competition Committee favours Real Madrid. Well, there are 3 people (you can find a lot of articles) in the Comitte and one is a member of Real Madrid (in terms of people who pay for having a seat in the stadium, etc.) and another one is an ex Real Madrid member. Exactly, 2 out of 3 members of the Committe that decide sanctions in LaLiga are/were members of Real Madrid. Bad job by Negreria, they were a decade ago and they are still there. It might (or might not, all of them had very good CV in private corporations) explain some things.
- Every club has it, usually ex referees. This kind of relationship should be public and not hidden. If not illegal, this is unethic.
- Every club has it and it doesn't change anything. Besides, Committe of Competition decide it anyway, and 2/3 had a strong relationship with Real Madrid.
- Another nothingburger. You can pay a 100 bucks for it.
- Looks that they wanted to have ears inside the League/Federation (they hate each other). This is unethical in the worst case scenario.
If these are all the "favours" the Prosecutor think Negreria was paid for... It would pretty much reduce the level of accusations (for Barca itself, the corruption at personal level is still there). Negreria did a very bad job in these matters so it is "strange" that he wasnt'f "fired" before.
I don't put a hand in fire for anyone and more documentation will come, but this is not very strong in the matter of "referee bribing".
We will see.
Here you go. I had to divide it into 4 messages as it exceeded the character limit.
1/4 - Compilation of news about the Negreira-Barcelona case.
(Long post. Everything has a link (mainly in Spanish, sorry) to contrast it or read further on.)
Barca has secretly paid 7.3M€ to Enríquez Negreira, the vice-president of the Technical Referee Comitee (CTA in Spanish) for 18 year (2001-2018) during 4 different Barca boards: Gaspart, Laporta, Rosell and Bertomeu. Laporta is still the president at the moment. Proof.
The payments stopped the moment Negreira lost his position as the refs VP. According to El Mundo Negreira then sent 6 additional bills, one of them of almost 40,000€. Barca answered saying they were not paying him anymore. Negreira then blackmailed Barca. He threatened to uncover the irregularities he had witnessed first hand regarding the club, unless they continued the payments until the previously agreed end, proof. Barca apparently did not pay him anymore, Negreira didn´t uncover irregularities. Instead, after Negreira blackmailed Barca, he started been paid by the Catalonian Football Federation for the same concept Barca paid him, proof.
According to this article Negreira offered his services again to Barca in 2020 (they stopped paying him in 2018). He told them:
"I can help you with the VAR, with me you would have done better" Negreira proposed.
"If you are interested, get in touch" but the Barcelona directors ignored the proposal.
In his official declaration to the Spanish tax agency that has been leaked, Negreira declared that Barca paid him to make sure no refereering adverse decision was taken against Barca, so it was all neutral. He also declared there was no report or similar document to prove any service made to Barca. Link to the document. ((This is my personal interpretation, but i believe that any declaration during a tax inspection is covered in "diligencias", and according to the article 107 Ley General Tributaria: the "diligencias" made during tax inspections and procedures have the the nature of public documents and prove the facts that motivated their formalization, even in court))
Barca has not admitted this. In the official declaration Barca declared the following:
-an external consultant was contracted for.
-they were provided with videos of low-category players in Spain.
-they were provided with technical videos regarding the refereering, something usual within the clubs.
-they regret this info broke at their best moment of the season.
I will analyse all these points below:
Barca argued they contracted an external consultant. But it is not true. When the Spanish tax agency asked about these payments they aknowledged not having any contract that justified the payments and wondered if they should say so or just play dumb. Proof can be found here.
Barca argued they paid for reports and video reports. In a recent adress to the press (You can see it here and I will talk more about it later on) Laporta repeated that these reports and videos did really exist and that the 7.3M€ were paid for them.
Jordi Mestre, a former Barca VP, has recently assured he received on his email account some of the ref reports Negreira was supposedly contracted for. He adds that 500k€ a year would be a lot to pay even for a high executive of the club and that it is suspicious that it was paid to the ref VP. He argued that it is a pipe dream to say that Barca received ref favours due to these payments. Link to the article
But somehow, such valuable videos and reports didn't reach the coaching staff. Valverde (Barca coach during this period of time) and Patausso (assistant to Tata Martino when he was coach of Barcelona during this time) admitted to have never looked at any ref report during his time at Barca and not even knowing they existed. On the last seconds of the video on this link Valverde denies the existance of such reports. Read about Tata Martino's staff declaration on this link.
Several of these reports had been leaked. You can see here some of the reports made by Negreira´s son. In it there is a complete analysis of every ref decision in a game, wether it was correct or a mistake and wether it was beneficial or not for Barca. you can see more of them here. in this link you can see some that were supposedly made by Negreira. They are a compilation of very low value info of the ref and they are ridden with gramatical and spelling mistakes.
Barca argued the info was revealed on the worst time possible (meaning they tried to hurt the club). The info was discovered by the reporter Sique Rodríguez from the program Que t'hi jugues from SER Barcelona. As you can see by his twitter account he is a Barca fan. On this Twitter video he explains that the scandal was deliberately published on the best possible moment for the club, and that the club knows this.
Barca also argued that it is usual for teams to pay for videos that analyze the ref actuations. This is true, it is known that most of La Liga clubs do hire a former, retired ref to make such analysis. Barca, themselves, currently pay 30.000€/year to an former ref for this service. The important part here is that they hired the ref VP while he was active, for 18 years at that. And they paid him 7.3M€. Obviously no technical video on ref performance is worth that much. It is also worth remembering that Negreira himself declared that he was being paid to avoid adverse refereering against Barca.
----According to this article Barca paid Negreira through 7 different companies. One of them was "Dasnil 95 S.L.", a company created by Negreira. His son (who will be important later on) was the administrator of the company. 95% of this company's income came from Barca, he barely made any money outside of them. The company was closed 2 years after Barca stopped paying them. Proof can be found here.
A poster very smartly already pointed to this:
And so far, it looks like this is what happened
We know Negreira´s son acted as a personal coach and a psychologist for Spanish referees. Perez Burrul, an ex-referee active while Negreira was the VP of the ref comitee, has admitted that, given the competition between refs, privetaly hiring the son of the ref VP could help them in their careers. He specifically referred to being promoted or relegated to the second division. Proof can be found here
Thanks to Andújar Oliver, a ref of the same period, we also know that Negreira´s son would call the refs in charge of the important games that happened in Camp Nou. He would ask them at which hotel they were staying and then would take them personally to the stadium. He admits that, he being the refs VP son, he could not turn him down. Declarations of Andújar Oliver. Video of Negreira's son accompanying refs to Camp Nou in 2015 in a match against Atlético de Madrid.
We also learnt how on one of this trips, where Negreira´s son was with the 4 refs (referee, two assistant referees and the fourth referee) on the way to a game at Camp Nou he told them:
“You already know: here, calm down. Barcelona has a lot at stake and you can´t hesitate. You are more than prepared. You know exactly what you have to do." Proof of this
It is worth remembering that, while doing all these, Negreira´s son admits being employed as an external consultant by Barca (as per his ver own CV available online). It is also worth remembering that he, and his father, got paid almost 7M€ by Barca during 18 years.
Negreira´s son was paid by Barça through a company of the historic Blaugrana manager José Contreras, who died in 2022. For his intermediation, Contreras kept half of what Enríquez billed.
Upon hearing all this news, the current Ref Committee (CTA) has forbidden any refs to continue getting involved or form any professional relationship with the son of Negreira (Proof of this) who, until that moment, was still accompanying refs to the Camp Nou (Proof of this)
Now let's talk about Negreira for a bit. What was his role as the VP of the ref committee?
Iturralde González, a former ref, said that Negreira never had any influence over refs.
López Nieto, Who was in the ref committee said that Negreira had no power. Link to their declaration
Albert Giménez, a former ref, said Negreira was an arrogant man that always boasted of influence peddling, saying he was the leader of the Referee Committee. Giménez said Negreira liked to intimidate others and admitted having been pressured by Negreira.
He also referred to a corruption scandal that involved Negreira and happened in the semifinals of the 1984 UEFA Cup between Anderlecht and Nottingham Forest. (You can read about this case below on "additional background information) Giménez's declaration .
Jaume Roures (a Barca socio, a guarantor for the current Barca board, and the guy who paid for Barca's fourth lever (the company he created paid 100M€ for 24,5% of Barça Studios: Proof)) has said that Negreira was the one that evaluated the performances of refs. He was the one who made the ref reports for the Technical Referee Comitee or CTA. Proof can be found here. ((How would Roures know such a thing? Well, he is also the CEO of Mediapro, a huge company that has exclusive rights for the TV commercialisation of La Liga, etc))
Roures' declaration links up with what former referee Paradas Romero has said: "Promotions and relegations were not adjusted to the category of the referees. We were surprised by who was promoted and who was relegated. Reports were opaque and obscure" "Negreira was the one who called us". Proof can be found here
---According to this article "There was always talk of a black hand in the Technical Referee Committee (CTA) regarding the promotions and relegations of the referees". Negreira had access to all the evaluation reports of the referees and could manipulate them, deciding who was promoted and who was demoted.Therefore , it could clearly influence the promotion of the most like-minded referees. "In the aforementioned evaluation reports, the marks normally ranged between 6 and 8.5, in addition there was the corrective factor that was the difficulty of the match". Negreira also took advantage of the reports of the delegates-informers to pass them on to FC Barcelona
---According to this article a former ref talks about what they called the "corrupting coefficient", a coefficient hadwritten by the ref committee that multiplied the refs performance evaluations and had a lot of importance in their final score. This coefficient was never explained nor justified.
So, Negreira and his son probably had influence over the refs and Barca paid them 7M€ during 18 years, but what happened to the money?
It is not known yet. We know that Negreira would withdraw 20k€ on cash periodically (proof can be found here) but it is not known what he did with it. His ex-wife, and mother of said son, has said that such a quantity of money never reached their household (Declaration of the ex-wife).
--According to this article Negreira used part of the money from Barça to give the referees presents valued in tens of thousands of euros: tickets for the Spanish Cup finals, 2k€ Iberian hams, a scooter, 1,500 personalized red and yellow cards with their corresponding card holders, and even sandwich toasters or sportswear. He would also invite refs to eat seafood and spend up to 2k€ per lunch and also various "invitations" without specifying.
---According to this article The Spanish tax agency suspects that Negreira used €550k from Barca to bribe third parties. The inspectors point out that Negreira would have dedicated those funds to remunerate others involved in the plot not yet identified and that he made those payments with cash to ensure precisely that they left no trace. Among the possible recipients of these payments are other members of the refereeing establishment who allegedly conspired with Negreira to obtain, as the Public Prosecutor's Office points out in its complaint, favourable decisions on the pitch for Barça.
---According to this article Negreira would withdraw up to 150k€ in checks. The investigation will determine whether there is a relation with the matches:
On April 27, 2014, he withdrew 50,000€. Three days before that a Clásico was played at the Bernabéu that Barcelona won (2-3), Sergio Ramos was sent off.
On September 29, 2016, Negreira made cash withdrawals in the amount of €150,000. On the 21st, he had received a transfer from Barça worth €197,519. On the 21st of that month, Barcelona faced Atlético Madrid at the Camp Nou with a 1-1 result.
---According to this article Negreira was paid 3.9M€ by Barca 2013-2018, but his account never had more than 280k€. He constantly withdrew money. In that timeframe he withdrew 2.8M€ in 277 checks. Of these, 215 were smaller than 3k€ so he could hide them from the Spanish Tax Agency.
Another document was leaked in which Negreira threatened Barca once again. He asked for more money for "so many years of relationship, so many favours rendered and so many shared confidences".
Please note, he admits to rendering favours to Barca. The document also reads: "Since 2003 Negreira has been adapting its company to the needs of FC Barcelona, hiring staff and training them for the strict needs of the club, who has required them to work exclusively in such a way that they cannot provide services to third parties".You can read the document (in Spanish) here.
This has sparked questions in Spain:
If Negreira just provided reports on refs and low-category players (as Barca declared) why would they need exclusivity? Why couldn't other teams pay for such reports?
If Negreira made sure no adverse refereering happened to Barca, just pure neutrality (as Negreira argued) why would they need exclusivity? Why couldn't other clubs pay for neutrality?
Tebas initially showed his concern about the matter. He also said that there could be NO sporting consequences as any possible sporting crime would have already prescribed. He also said that the Prosecution was looking into the matter and that there might be a crime of corruption between individuals in the version of sports fixing. Proof of Tebas statement
Later on Tebas said that Laporta should resign if he doesn't explain this affair correctly. Proof
Lastly, Laporta made an official address to the press where he blamed Tebas. He argued Tebas has finally revealed his true nature and that he has had a phobia against Barca for a long time. He said that Tebas wanted him to resign and that he would not. He also revealed that Barca has started its own Investigations on this affair and that it was externalised to assure its independence, thoroughness and excellency. Proof can be read here. Weeks later we are still waiting on the results of his investigation.
Negreira was paid monthly for 18 years, he was normally paid similar amounts, except for June (when the sporting season ends) in which he was paid twice or even thrice that amount. Proof of this. His pay increased over the years and when Laporta was president it got quadrupled (Proof can be found here). Let's hope his internal investigation can find out why this happened.
Meanwhile, Sevilla and Espanyol made individual statements where they expressed their concerns about the matter and asked for a full investigation. Sevilla's comunicado oficial. Espanyol's comunicado oficial. Later on a Delegate Commission, acting in representation of La Liga, all teams of first division (except 2) and all teams of second division, made an official statement. In this statement they express deep concern about the Negreira-Barca case and say they they will act firmly within the powers and limits allowed by the Law. You can read the official statement in English here.
Estrada Fernandez, a current ref, has demanded Negreira (the former ref VP) for alleged sports corruption or sports fraud due to the payments the latter received for advising FC Barcelona. In the demand's contents Estrada Fernandez argues that Negreira provided arbitration advisory and follow-up services with the aim of guaranteeing arbitration favorable to the interests of FC Barcelona while he was vice president of the Arbitration Committee from 2003 to 2018.News of this demand.
An association comprised of 1.300 Sevilla F.C. shareholders has reported to UEFA the 'Negreira Case' in a letter directed to its president Ceferin. In the letter they urge UEFA, if the accusations are proven, to held Barca accountable and, if it's deemed appropriate, to rectify the affected sporting results. You can read the statement here
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2/4 - Compilation of news about the Negreira-Barcelona case.
---Barca officially charged with sports fraud:
FC Barcelona, Negreira (former ref VP), Rosell and Bertomeu (fomer Barca presidents), Óscar Grau and Albert Soler (two fomer Barca executives) have been charged with:
-continued business corruption, in its sports fraud version.
-breach of trust
-false business records.
The Prosecutor's Office points out: "through the presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barça reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with the accused Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice president of the referee technical committee and in exchange for money, he would carry out actions tending to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the Club, and thus in the results of the competitions; referees whose designation for each match of the official Spanish competitions is carried out carried out within this referee committee. This committee is also in charge of the evaluations -in which the defendant participated- for the promotions and demotions of the referees as well as the proposal of candidates for international refereering".
Other presidents such as Laporta, Gaspart and Nuñez are equally involved but are not charged as It has prescribed. Laporta and Gaspart have been called to testify.
Barca paid 7.3M€ to Negreira since 2001, but only the 1.2M€ they paid him between 2014 and 2015 and the 1.6M€ they paid him during 2016 and 2018, for a total of 2.9M€, have not prescribed.
Other conclusions of the investigation:
--Payments to Negreira (ref VP) were proven since 2001 but everything indicates that the operation began in the 1990s, during the presidency of the late Josep Lluís Núñez (this is very important regarding the so called "Ligas de Tenerife")
--The crime attributed to the club can only be enforced since 2010 because the Penal Code did not contemplate it before that.
Link 1 and Link 2.
The High Council of Sports (CSD), the Spanish FA, and Real Madrid will take part in the summary of the Negreira case. The participation of the High Council of Sports (CSD) is important at least symbolically. Miquel Iceta, actual minister of culture and sports, had previously said that the Spanish Government would be forced to participate in this case, and they are doing so through the CSD. His president has said: "this case worries me. A club does not pay the ref VP for nothing" Link
For Barca to befound guilty, According to this lawyer, and the Spanish Supreme Court precedent, it has to be proven that:
-There was "promising", "offering", "granting", "receiving", "requesting" or "accepting" benefits or advantages of any nature, not justified and in breach of their obligations.
-It happened with the purpose of deliberately and fraudulently predetermining or altering the result of a test, meeting or sports competition.
If this is proven then the possible penalties are:
To the involved people: between 2 years and 3 months and 5 years in prison.
To the club: the prohibition of continuing activities from 1 to 5 years, closing of facilities, dissolution of the club, or a fine of thrice the benefits that they got from it.
---According to this article the integrity department of UEFA has asked the Spanish FA for all the information regarding the Negreira case. This is important because it looks like only UEFA and FIFA could give any sporting sanctions. According to this article Tebas said that "in European competitions there is no prescription. UEFA could take action on national affairs if the national competition could not fight against a crime". According to this article UEFA has decided to open an investigation into Barca´s alleged imporper payments to referee official. UEFA's sanctions could include a ban from European competitions.
---FIFA's can give harder sanctions like relegation to a lower division or expulsion from a competition in progress or from future competitions, but they haven't even started any investigation yet). According to this article FIFA would initially delegate to the Spanish FA to take any needed disciplinary measures and under some circumstances they could get involved, such as:
'FIFA's judicial bodies reserve the right to investigate, prosecute and penalize serious infringements that fall within the scope of application of this code and within the jurisdiction of the confederations, federations or other sports organizations if they deem it appropriate in a given case. In particular if the confederation, federation or sports organization does not prosecute a serious infringement within a period of three months from the moment the infringement is reported to the Disciplinary Commission'
The infringement has already been reported to the Spanish FA integrity Department but they can not take action as it has prescribed according to the Spanish Law of Sports. So I guess the last condition will be met in case they want to take action.
---According to this article Negreira declared, in his statement to the Tax Agency, that he did not charge anything for being vice president of the technical referee committee because he already had a salary from FC Barcelona.
---According to this article Negreira received €1240 monthly for disability ((while earning millions from Barca and earning apparently nothing from his job as the ref VP))
---In this document you can see the justification for some of Barca payments to Negreira. I would specially refer you to the 7th column, where they charged Barca 145k€ for recording and viewing the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
---Barca officially charged with sports fraud:
FC Barcelona, Negreira (former ref VP), Rosell and Bertomeu (fomer Barca presidents), Óscar Grau and Albert Soler (two fomer Barca executives) have been charged with:
-continued business corruption, in its sports fraud version.
-breach of trust
-false business records.
The Prosecutor's Office points out: "through the presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barça reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with the accused Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice president of the referee technical committee and in exchange for money, he would carry out actions tending to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the Club, and thus in the results of the competitions; referees whose designation for each match of the official Spanish competitions is carried out carried out within this referee committee. This committee is also in charge of the evaluations -in which the defendant participated- for the promotions and demotions of the referees as well as the proposal of candidates for international refereering".
Other presidents such as Laporta, Gaspart and Nuñez are equally involved but are not charged as It has prescribed. Laporta and Gaspart have been called to testify.
Barca paid 7.3M€ to Negreira since 2001, but only the 1.2M€ they paid him between 2014 and 2015 and the 1.6M€ they paid him during 2016 and 2018, for a total of 2.9M€, have not prescribed.
Other conclusions of the investigation:
--Payments to Negreira (ref VP) were proven since 2001 but everything indicates that the operation began in the 1990s, during the presidency of the late Josep Lluís Núñez (this is very important regarding the so called "Ligas de Tenerife")
--The crime attributed to the club can only be enforced since 2010 because the Penal Code did not contemplate it before that.
Link 1 and Link 2.
The High Council of Sports (CSD), the Spanish FA, and Real Madrid will take part in the summary of the Negreira case. The participation of the High Council of Sports (CSD) is important at least symbolically. Miquel Iceta, actual minister of culture and sports, had previously said that the Spanish Government would be forced to participate in this case, and they are doing so through the CSD. His president has said: "this case worries me. A club does not pay the ref VP for nothing" Link
For Barca to befound guilty, According to this lawyer, and the Spanish Supreme Court precedent, it has to be proven that:
-There was "promising", "offering", "granting", "receiving", "requesting" or "accepting" benefits or advantages of any nature, not justified and in breach of their obligations.
-It happened with the purpose of deliberately and fraudulently predetermining or altering the result of a test, meeting or sports competition.
If this is proven then the possible penalties are:
To the involved people: between 2 years and 3 months and 5 years in prison.
To the club: the prohibition of continuing activities from 1 to 5 years, closing of facilities, dissolution of the club, or a fine of thrice the benefits that they got from it.
---According to this article the integrity department of UEFA has asked the Spanish FA for all the information regarding the Negreira case. This is important because it looks like only UEFA and FIFA could give any sporting sanctions. According to this article Tebas said that "in European competitions there is no prescription. UEFA could take action on national affairs if the national competition could not fight against a crime". According to this article UEFA has decided to open an investigation into Barca´s alleged imporper payments to referee official. UEFA's sanctions could include a ban from European competitions.
---FIFA's can give harder sanctions like relegation to a lower division or expulsion from a competition in progress or from future competitions, but they haven't even started any investigation yet). According to this article FIFA would initially delegate to the Spanish FA to take any needed disciplinary measures and under some circumstances they could get involved, such as:
'FIFA's judicial bodies reserve the right to investigate, prosecute and penalize serious infringements that fall within the scope of application of this code and within the jurisdiction of the confederations, federations or other sports organizations if they deem it appropriate in a given case. In particular if the confederation, federation or sports organization does not prosecute a serious infringement within a period of three months from the moment the infringement is reported to the Disciplinary Commission'
The infringement has already been reported to the Spanish FA integrity Department but they can not take action as it has prescribed according to the Spanish Law of Sports. So I guess the last condition will be met in case they want to take action.
---According to this article Negreira declared, in his statement to the Tax Agency, that he did not charge anything for being vice president of the technical referee committee because he already had a salary from FC Barcelona.
---According to this article Negreira received €1240 monthly for disability ((while earning millions from Barca and earning apparently nothing from his job as the ref VP))
---In this document you can see the justification for some of Barca payments to Negreira. I would specially refer you to the 7th column, where they charged Barca 145k€ for recording and viewing the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
Last edited:
3/4 - Compilation of news about the Negreira-Barcelona case.
---According to this article the Spanish Tax Agency (they are the ones who started this whole investigation) only noticed the irregularities when Barca tried to deduct 900k paid to Negreira with invoices false apparently.
---According to this article, in private conversations, Rosell and Bartomeu (Barca´sex-presidents) said they hired the former VP of referees to compensate for the favors received by Real Madrid. They also argued that they maintained these payments hidden from their directors and a good part of their executives "to protect them". (( This would contradict Laporta's initial declaration that they paid exclusively for reports. This would also prove that they indeed tried to influence the refereering))
---According to this article the Spanish FA (RFEF), directed by Rubiales, knew since June 2022 that the Prosecutor's Office was investigating the payments to Negreira. Nine months before the case shook public opinion, the RFEF received a request for information, the Prosecutor's Office wanted to know whether Negreira was allowed to be paid from a club subject to its own discipline while holding the position of 'number two' of the referee committee (which depends of the RFEF). The Spanish FA, directed by Rubiales, replied that there was no incompatibility by reason of his position.
-------------------------
My comment: you may ask yourself how is it possible that the president of the FA sees no incompatibility in Barca paying the ref VP?? Well, it is easy. Some months ago it was revealed that he himself was involved in similarly shady deals. He also argued that there was no incompatibility then.
Rubiales, president of the Spanish FA was in cahoots with Piqué while he was still a player and the captain of Barcelona. Basically both took part in the negotiations of the newest format of the Spanish Supercup that takes place in Saudi Arabia and therefore Piqué gets (and is still getting) a big cut for every edition of the tournament (6M€ each and every single year), we don't know how much Rubiales is making as a cut. Piqué resigned quietly in the middle of this season when all this surfaced and now everyone has forgotten about it. Rubiales never resigned and still holds the job. This was even covered by Barca pages: https://barcauniversal.com/gerard-p...ok-e6-million-in-saudi-arabia-super-cup-deal/
Sadly, this corrupt Rubiales who was getting rich along with Piqué while he was a player, was the fresh-blood that was supposed to change things for the better when he replaced Villar, the previous Spanish FA president and the center of the whole Villarato theory involving Barca-refs-UEFA
----In this article (in English) you can see the breakdown of Barca's payments to Negreira over the years it comes from a Barca-centered newspaper. This image is a quick summary
---According to this article Barca declared to the Spanish Tax Agency: "It cannot be stated who, on behalf of the FCB, was responsible for commissioning the services"-
"No contract with the company Dasnil was formally writen down. The club does not know the details of the formalization of the verbal contract since we should go back to 2001 and the people who had to negotiate said contracts are no longer employees of the club".
Apparently Barcelona declared that the 7.3 million paid did not respond to real services. No club employee could explain the real reason for these payments, beyond the concepts included in the invoices.
-------------------
My comment: the explanations of the last 2 paragraphs are strange. Laporta says nobody in the club knows who commissioned the services nor why. If you see the breakdown of the payments from my previous post you will see that Gaspart payed Negreira only in one year, 2001. Laporta's board resumed the payments annually in 2005 and by 2009 he had quadrupled his salary. He really should know why.
----This article shows a report made by Negreira to Barca in 2012 regarding the ref in charge of an upcoming Clásico. Apart from measly details like the other reports we have seen it includes things like:
"Mentally he is in good shape but physically speaking he is the worst in the category"
"He likes to waive the play on, sometimes not giving fouls on the edge of the area in which the team would benefit more if he calls them. For that it's better to lay to the ground or stop the play to force him to whistle the foul."
---Refs do make mistakes, this is obvious. But, apparently, for years the refs that made a mistake that harmed Barca got demoted or punished, and the ones that mistakenly benefited Barca got promoted. It was the other way around for their rivals in La Liga. This article (in Spanish) contains 22 examples during the time when Negreira (Barca paid him 6.6M€) was the ref VP and the ref evaluator-reviewer, and Villar (Barca friend) was the president of Spanish FA. Again, this is not a problem about ref mistakes, to err is human. The problem is how those mistakes got stimulated or punished based on what teams they affected. The best example is Clos Gómez, he was a ref for La Liga for 11 seasons, but he was sooo bad he was never employed by UEFA or FIFA.
---According to this article Negreira's son leaked to Barça the referee for a Spanish Cup 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: "It will be Clos Gómez". (Yes, the ref from before was awarded with a Cup Final for his merits, makes sense, right?)
---According to this article the Spanish Tax Agency (they are the ones who started this whole investigation) only noticed the irregularities when Barca tried to deduct 900k paid to Negreira with invoices false apparently.
---According to this article, in private conversations, Rosell and Bartomeu (Barca´sex-presidents) said they hired the former VP of referees to compensate for the favors received by Real Madrid. They also argued that they maintained these payments hidden from their directors and a good part of their executives "to protect them". (( This would contradict Laporta's initial declaration that they paid exclusively for reports. This would also prove that they indeed tried to influence the refereering))
---According to this article the Spanish FA (RFEF), directed by Rubiales, knew since June 2022 that the Prosecutor's Office was investigating the payments to Negreira. Nine months before the case shook public opinion, the RFEF received a request for information, the Prosecutor's Office wanted to know whether Negreira was allowed to be paid from a club subject to its own discipline while holding the position of 'number two' of the referee committee (which depends of the RFEF). The Spanish FA, directed by Rubiales, replied that there was no incompatibility by reason of his position.
-------------------------
My comment: you may ask yourself how is it possible that the president of the FA sees no incompatibility in Barca paying the ref VP?? Well, it is easy. Some months ago it was revealed that he himself was involved in similarly shady deals. He also argued that there was no incompatibility then.
Rubiales, president of the Spanish FA was in cahoots with Piqué while he was still a player and the captain of Barcelona. Basically both took part in the negotiations of the newest format of the Spanish Supercup that takes place in Saudi Arabia and therefore Piqué gets (and is still getting) a big cut for every edition of the tournament (6M€ each and every single year), we don't know how much Rubiales is making as a cut. Piqué resigned quietly in the middle of this season when all this surfaced and now everyone has forgotten about it. Rubiales never resigned and still holds the job. This was even covered by Barca pages: https://barcauniversal.com/gerard-p...ok-e6-million-in-saudi-arabia-super-cup-deal/
Sadly, this corrupt Rubiales who was getting rich along with Piqué while he was a player, was the fresh-blood that was supposed to change things for the better when he replaced Villar, the previous Spanish FA president and the center of the whole Villarato theory involving Barca-refs-UEFA
----In this article (in English) you can see the breakdown of Barca's payments to Negreira over the years it comes from a Barca-centered newspaper. This image is a quick summary
---According to this article Barca declared to the Spanish Tax Agency: "It cannot be stated who, on behalf of the FCB, was responsible for commissioning the services"-
"No contract with the company Dasnil was formally writen down. The club does not know the details of the formalization of the verbal contract since we should go back to 2001 and the people who had to negotiate said contracts are no longer employees of the club".
Apparently Barcelona declared that the 7.3 million paid did not respond to real services. No club employee could explain the real reason for these payments, beyond the concepts included in the invoices.
-------------------
My comment: the explanations of the last 2 paragraphs are strange. Laporta says nobody in the club knows who commissioned the services nor why. If you see the breakdown of the payments from my previous post you will see that Gaspart payed Negreira only in one year, 2001. Laporta's board resumed the payments annually in 2005 and by 2009 he had quadrupled his salary. He really should know why.
----This article shows a report made by Negreira to Barca in 2012 regarding the ref in charge of an upcoming Clásico. Apart from measly details like the other reports we have seen it includes things like:
"Mentally he is in good shape but physically speaking he is the worst in the category"
"He likes to waive the play on, sometimes not giving fouls on the edge of the area in which the team would benefit more if he calls them. For that it's better to lay to the ground or stop the play to force him to whistle the foul."
---Refs do make mistakes, this is obvious. But, apparently, for years the refs that made a mistake that harmed Barca got demoted or punished, and the ones that mistakenly benefited Barca got promoted. It was the other way around for their rivals in La Liga. This article (in Spanish) contains 22 examples during the time when Negreira (Barca paid him 6.6M€) was the ref VP and the ref evaluator-reviewer, and Villar (Barca friend) was the president of Spanish FA. Again, this is not a problem about ref mistakes, to err is human. The problem is how those mistakes got stimulated or punished based on what teams they affected. The best example is Clos Gómez, he was a ref for La Liga for 11 seasons, but he was sooo bad he was never employed by UEFA or FIFA.
In this video you can see his refereering in a Barca-sporting match: Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper, Barca's second goal was offside, several penalties given to Barca are a complete joke, all while not giving a pen to Piqué (which is normal, Barca spend more than 2 years without a pen against them in La Liga). These mistakes were quite beneficial to Barca as they won the league that season by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season. You would expect such a terrible refereering woul have some consequences, right? Well, of course. Clos Gomez is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain and the Head of the First Division Refereering Technical Committee.Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
---According to this article Negreira's son leaked to Barça the referee for a Spanish Cup 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: "It will be Clos Gómez". (Yes, the ref from before was awarded with a Cup Final for his merits, makes sense, right?)
Last edited:
4/4 - Compilation of additional background information:
---Barca are in the middle of a huge infraestructure remodelation called "Espai Barça". Works valued 1.5B€ plus interests. Now their credit rating is expected to drop and they don't have the funding yet, they planned to close it before 31 of March. Proof. They have already started demolishing part of the Camp Nou. Barca's own pictures
---There was a case of corruption scandal that involved Negreira and happened in the semifinals of the 1984 UEFA Cup between Anderlecht and Nottingham Forest. Former ref Albert Giménez said: "I am aware that they bought a referee, Guruzeta. Negreira was the linesman" Giménez's declaration. Constant Vanden Stock, president of Anderlecht admitted paying a million Belgian francs to the ref Gutuzeta. UEFA started an investigation and suspended the team for a year from European competitions. The main ref Gutuzeta died in a car accident and never testified. Negreira and the other linesman denied their participation on the corruption affairband ultimately UEFA declared the case had prescribed.Guardian article about said incident. You can read more here.
---Negreira was also involved in an embezzlement scandal in 2006 in relation to the Catalonian Referee Association: After a change of power, it was uncovered how that association —run by a friend of Negreira — had bought a lot of services from Negreira’s company, among other things 4,000 compendiums for referees, while it only had 1,400 members, a lot of video material, that nobody ever saw etc etc etc. Everything was also allegedly overpriced. This paints a pretty clear picture of Negreira. And it also casts doubt as to why FCB would keep hiring someone with such a dubious past. Link1 and Link2. (Big thanks to Messier1994 for this info)
---As previously stated, the Barca-Negreira affair was discovered by the reporter Sique Rodríguez from the program Que t'hi jugues from SER Barcelona. In this video Sique admits that they investigated as much as they could to find any leads that would mean other team (specially Real Madrid) was also involved in this affair but they found none.
This, together with the 'exclusivity' of Negreira's work might really mean it only affects Barcelona. We will see.
---If you are wondering why this affair is not bigger you might find useful to know that Barca also paid 7,2M€ to media companies such us diario Ara, Cope, Cadena Ser, Rac1, Mundo Deportivo and El Periódico or reporters such as Marçal Lorente. Proof1 and Proof2.
---In this video (that has English subtitles) Alfons Godall, the vicepresident of Barca 2003-2010 talks about several points:
--Barca (under Laporta's presidency) helped Villar get elected as president of Spanish FA.
--This started an era in which Barca were in good terms with the FA, with the La Liga institution and with the Referee Committee. (We recently learnt there are 7.3 millions reasons for this good relationship).
--Laporta also promoted a good relationship with the same institutions from UEFA, FIFA and the ECA.
So, who where in charge of the Referee Committees of UEFA and FIFA?
+The very same Villar was the president of FIFA's referee committee (also the VP of UEFA)
+Şenes Erzik was the deputy chairman of UEFA's Referee Committee and the Chief of Projects of UNICEF while Barca had UNICEF as a shirt sponsor.
In the very same video, the former Barca VP argues how not having such good relationships with these institutions would harm Barca from the point of view of sporting results. He specifically refers to the "saldo arbitral" or the difference in the refereeering regarding Barca and their rivals. Favourable and unfavourable ref decisions regarding Barca and their rivals.
Anyone remember what Negreira said he was getting paid for??
This "saldo arbitral" has been a fan talking point for years and, recently, is getting a little traction on Spanish press.
---Little extra info about "saldo arbitral" coming from this tweet.
Between 15/16 and 17/18 (114 games) Barca paid 1.6M to the ref VP. They had:
33 penalties for them 3 penalties against
23 red cards in favor 4 expulsions against
Between 18/19 and 20/21 (114 games) Barca made no payments to the ref VP. They had:
23 penalties for them 14 penalties against
15 red cards in favor 10 red cards against
More info about saldo arbitral:
---According to this article the last four Barcelona compliance officers have been sacked in quick succession since 2020 forlooking into irregular payments.
---Regarding this matter, Simeone, current Atlético de Madrid coach, said that "we all make a living out of this (football) and we would like to compete with the same possibilities" Minute 5:15 of this video
---Jesús Gil y Gil, the owner of Atlético de Madrid at the time already said in 1993 that Barca won the league thanks to Negreira. (1993 was the year Negreira stopped being a referee and started working for the ref committee). Proof of this declaration
---Ramón Mendoza, the president of Real Madrid at the time, already said in 1994 that there was indication of sport fraud involving Negreira (Proof of Mendoza's declaration)
---Negreira has declared he is in the early stages of Alzheimer and has presented medical evidence. Depending on the degree of this illness, Negreira could evade any criminal responsibility. Proof of this
---Luis Bassat was a candidate for the Barca presidency twice, in 2000 and 2003 (the period in which the ref payments started). He failed both times.
He gave an interview that you can read in Spanish here after losing the presidency elections against Laporta. In this interview he confesses the following:
"(I am feeling) Bad, but also liberated because [...] I have seen things that they say that I have to do that I will no longer have to deal with."
Q. What things?
A. For example, that a very important person from the club came to me and said: "And how do you want to be president, if there are many things you don't know?" What is it that I don't know?" And he answered me: "For example, how to bribe a referee.
--When Negreira stepped down as the ref VP in 2018 he started working in Mundo Deportivo (for those who don't know, Mundo Deportivo is the biggest Barca-centered newspaper in Spain). In this newspaper Negreira analyzed the ref performances for the whole 2019-2020 season. Coming from a Barca newspaper and written by a guy who earned millions thanks to Barca you can imagine the level of bias Barca fans learned from. Proof of this
--In the same year his son worked for TV also analysing ref performances while being employed by Barca (according to his own CV). He is the same guy who told some refs:
“You already know: here, calm down. Barcelona has a lot at stake and you can´t hesitate. You are more than prepared. You know exactly what you have to do." In this video he reviews the ref performance in a Clásico.
---In 1992 Negreira's son had an interview in Mundo Deportivo (biggest Barca-centered newspaper) and he explained how his father had granted him the possibility to train for La Masía. The interview reads 'It really isn't a case of influence peddling...' He also declared having being a Barca fan all his life. The original interview used to be online but not anymore, you can still read about it here.
---According to this article Tebas has said: "I don't think Barca bribed the refs. But they paid Negreira for 20 years. It feels as if they wanted to have an influence. I am definitely not saying they bribed the refs"
---Tebas (president of La Liga) and Soler plotted to kick Rubiales out and put Soler in his position. This means Tebas and Soler plotted to make Soler the president of Spanish FA. So, who is Soler?? Albert Soler was a Barca executive during 2014-2021(many of these years they were paying Negreira). Then he was Sports "Director General" 2021-2023. This is a high position in the Spanish gobernment, they are selected and fired directly by the the Council of Ministers. ((Also, after stepping down from the governmental position Soler has been named the Sports director of a consulting company called 'Acento Public Affairs'. One of the big clients they have is Tebas and La Liga. Proof in this article.Those two seem to have a good business relationship)). Soler also seems to be involved deeply in the Negreira case as you will see below.
There was recently a press call made jointly by the Spanish FA and the Referee Committee (CTA) regarding Negreira (the ref VP who received 6.6M€ from Barca) and his son.
They revelead that they made a huge investigation regarding every ref. A document from the investigation was leaked and it asked things like if they had been in contact with the son of Negreira or if he had taken them to a football stadium before and if any payments had been involved.
In this press call they didn't say much as they wanted to keep the results of the investigation private. The revealed that if the Spanish Prosecution filed a demand they will give them all the information they had, until then they would be kind of waiting.
They also said two things (did not revel any names)
-1 ref didn't collaborate.
-They found proof that 1 person with governmental attributions did in fact know that these payments were happening at the time but chose to not say anything or denounce it. The current thesis is that this person must be Albert Soler.
A high sports executive of the Government at the time and a former Barca executive during the time they were paying Negreira. According to this article the Spanish FA is considering taking legal action against him
----You can hear here Julio Salinas' declarations. The former Barca player has said:
"For me, Barça is guilty of corruption for having paid amounts with false invoices. It is a scandal to pay 8M€to a ref. It's like if I work as a scouter for Barça and they pay me a million a year because we are good friends. But I don't think Barca benefited from the referees. There has always been a tendency to harm Barca, the beneficiary is another club"
----This Barca official tweet from years ago reads: "Piqué: 'we don't use PEDs, we don't dive and we don't bribe refs' ". Just look at all the recent comments. .
----While all this is being revealed all Barca fans are acting like this fan who was interviewed outside the Camp Nou the day the news of Messi leaving broke out. And this one guy believed that Florentino was behind the whole thing Link (in Spanish)
TL; DR 1, 2
---Barca are in the middle of a huge infraestructure remodelation called "Espai Barça". Works valued 1.5B€ plus interests. Now their credit rating is expected to drop and they don't have the funding yet, they planned to close it before 31 of March. Proof. They have already started demolishing part of the Camp Nou. Barca's own pictures
---There was a case of corruption scandal that involved Negreira and happened in the semifinals of the 1984 UEFA Cup between Anderlecht and Nottingham Forest. Former ref Albert Giménez said: "I am aware that they bought a referee, Guruzeta. Negreira was the linesman" Giménez's declaration. Constant Vanden Stock, president of Anderlecht admitted paying a million Belgian francs to the ref Gutuzeta. UEFA started an investigation and suspended the team for a year from European competitions. The main ref Gutuzeta died in a car accident and never testified. Negreira and the other linesman denied their participation on the corruption affairband ultimately UEFA declared the case had prescribed.Guardian article about said incident. You can read more here.
---Negreira was also involved in an embezzlement scandal in 2006 in relation to the Catalonian Referee Association: After a change of power, it was uncovered how that association —run by a friend of Negreira — had bought a lot of services from Negreira’s company, among other things 4,000 compendiums for referees, while it only had 1,400 members, a lot of video material, that nobody ever saw etc etc etc. Everything was also allegedly overpriced. This paints a pretty clear picture of Negreira. And it also casts doubt as to why FCB would keep hiring someone with such a dubious past. Link1 and Link2. (Big thanks to Messier1994 for this info)
---As previously stated, the Barca-Negreira affair was discovered by the reporter Sique Rodríguez from the program Que t'hi jugues from SER Barcelona. In this video Sique admits that they investigated as much as they could to find any leads that would mean other team (specially Real Madrid) was also involved in this affair but they found none.
This, together with the 'exclusivity' of Negreira's work might really mean it only affects Barcelona. We will see.
---If you are wondering why this affair is not bigger you might find useful to know that Barca also paid 7,2M€ to media companies such us diario Ara, Cope, Cadena Ser, Rac1, Mundo Deportivo and El Periódico or reporters such as Marçal Lorente. Proof1 and Proof2.
---In this video (that has English subtitles) Alfons Godall, the vicepresident of Barca 2003-2010 talks about several points:
--Barca (under Laporta's presidency) helped Villar get elected as president of Spanish FA.
--This started an era in which Barca were in good terms with the FA, with the La Liga institution and with the Referee Committee. (We recently learnt there are 7.3 millions reasons for this good relationship).
--Laporta also promoted a good relationship with the same institutions from UEFA, FIFA and the ECA.
So, who where in charge of the Referee Committees of UEFA and FIFA?
+The very same Villar was the president of FIFA's referee committee (also the VP of UEFA)
+Şenes Erzik was the deputy chairman of UEFA's Referee Committee and the Chief of Projects of UNICEF while Barca had UNICEF as a shirt sponsor.
In the very same video, the former Barca VP argues how not having such good relationships with these institutions would harm Barca from the point of view of sporting results. He specifically refers to the "saldo arbitral" or the difference in the refereeering regarding Barca and their rivals. Favourable and unfavourable ref decisions regarding Barca and their rivals.
Anyone remember what Negreira said he was getting paid for??
This "saldo arbitral" has been a fan talking point for years and, recently, is getting a little traction on Spanish press.
---Little extra info about "saldo arbitral" coming from this tweet.
Between 15/16 and 17/18 (114 games) Barca paid 1.6M to the ref VP. They had:
33 penalties for them 3 penalties against
23 red cards in favor 4 expulsions against
Between 18/19 and 20/21 (114 games) Barca made no payments to the ref VP. They had:
23 penalties for them 14 penalties against
15 red cards in favor 10 red cards against
More info about saldo arbitral:
---According to this article the last four Barcelona compliance officers have been sacked in quick succession since 2020 forlooking into irregular payments.
---Regarding this matter, Simeone, current Atlético de Madrid coach, said that "we all make a living out of this (football) and we would like to compete with the same possibilities" Minute 5:15 of this video
---Jesús Gil y Gil, the owner of Atlético de Madrid at the time already said in 1993 that Barca won the league thanks to Negreira. (1993 was the year Negreira stopped being a referee and started working for the ref committee). Proof of this declaration
---Ramón Mendoza, the president of Real Madrid at the time, already said in 1994 that there was indication of sport fraud involving Negreira (Proof of Mendoza's declaration)
---Negreira has declared he is in the early stages of Alzheimer and has presented medical evidence. Depending on the degree of this illness, Negreira could evade any criminal responsibility. Proof of this
---Luis Bassat was a candidate for the Barca presidency twice, in 2000 and 2003 (the period in which the ref payments started). He failed both times.
He gave an interview that you can read in Spanish here after losing the presidency elections against Laporta. In this interview he confesses the following:
"(I am feeling) Bad, but also liberated because [...] I have seen things that they say that I have to do that I will no longer have to deal with."
Q. What things?
A. For example, that a very important person from the club came to me and said: "And how do you want to be president, if there are many things you don't know?" What is it that I don't know?" And he answered me: "For example, how to bribe a referee.
--When Negreira stepped down as the ref VP in 2018 he started working in Mundo Deportivo (for those who don't know, Mundo Deportivo is the biggest Barca-centered newspaper in Spain). In this newspaper Negreira analyzed the ref performances for the whole 2019-2020 season. Coming from a Barca newspaper and written by a guy who earned millions thanks to Barca you can imagine the level of bias Barca fans learned from. Proof of this
--In the same year his son worked for TV also analysing ref performances while being employed by Barca (according to his own CV). He is the same guy who told some refs:
“You already know: here, calm down. Barcelona has a lot at stake and you can´t hesitate. You are more than prepared. You know exactly what you have to do." In this video he reviews the ref performance in a Clásico.
---In 1992 Negreira's son had an interview in Mundo Deportivo (biggest Barca-centered newspaper) and he explained how his father had granted him the possibility to train for La Masía. The interview reads 'It really isn't a case of influence peddling...' He also declared having being a Barca fan all his life. The original interview used to be online but not anymore, you can still read about it here.
---According to this article Tebas has said: "I don't think Barca bribed the refs. But they paid Negreira for 20 years. It feels as if they wanted to have an influence. I am definitely not saying they bribed the refs"
---Tebas (president of La Liga) and Soler plotted to kick Rubiales out and put Soler in his position. This means Tebas and Soler plotted to make Soler the president of Spanish FA. So, who is Soler?? Albert Soler was a Barca executive during 2014-2021(many of these years they were paying Negreira). Then he was Sports "Director General" 2021-2023. This is a high position in the Spanish gobernment, they are selected and fired directly by the the Council of Ministers. ((Also, after stepping down from the governmental position Soler has been named the Sports director of a consulting company called 'Acento Public Affairs'. One of the big clients they have is Tebas and La Liga. Proof in this article.Those two seem to have a good business relationship)). Soler also seems to be involved deeply in the Negreira case as you will see below.
There was recently a press call made jointly by the Spanish FA and the Referee Committee (CTA) regarding Negreira (the ref VP who received 6.6M€ from Barca) and his son.
They revelead that they made a huge investigation regarding every ref. A document from the investigation was leaked and it asked things like if they had been in contact with the son of Negreira or if he had taken them to a football stadium before and if any payments had been involved.
In this press call they didn't say much as they wanted to keep the results of the investigation private. The revealed that if the Spanish Prosecution filed a demand they will give them all the information they had, until then they would be kind of waiting.
They also said two things (did not revel any names)
-1 ref didn't collaborate.
-They found proof that 1 person with governmental attributions did in fact know that these payments were happening at the time but chose to not say anything or denounce it. The current thesis is that this person must be Albert Soler.
A high sports executive of the Government at the time and a former Barca executive during the time they were paying Negreira. According to this article the Spanish FA is considering taking legal action against him
----You can hear here Julio Salinas' declarations. The former Barca player has said:
"For me, Barça is guilty of corruption for having paid amounts with false invoices. It is a scandal to pay 8M€to a ref. It's like if I work as a scouter for Barça and they pay me a million a year because we are good friends. But I don't think Barca benefited from the referees. There has always been a tendency to harm Barca, the beneficiary is another club"
----This Barca official tweet from years ago reads: "Piqué: 'we don't use PEDs, we don't dive and we don't bribe refs' ". Just look at all the recent comments.
.----While all this is being revealed all Barca fans are acting like this fan who was interviewed outside the Camp Nou the day the news of Messi leaving broke out. And this one guy believed that Florentino was behind the whole thing
Link (in Spanish)TL; DR 1, 2
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Thats an awesome write up thanks.
The bit that stands out to me is Iberian Hams and sandwich toasters were used to influence others
The bit that stands out to me is Iberian Hams and sandwich toasters were used to influence others
I’d bend for a proper iberico ham.Thats an awesome write up thanks.
The bit that stands out to me is Iberian Hams and sandwich toasters were used to influence others
It is heavenly………
Indeed, the last thing you want is to tip so well so the mariachi band won’t leave you alone.
The thing is Negreira gave different kinds of presents.The bit that stands out to me is Iberian Hams and sandwich toasters were used to influence others
Iberian Hams and sandwich toasters are seemingly innocent gifts. The kind of gifts that banks would also give as an incentive at the time. Nothing suspicious on its own, a good present to probe the refs and see which are more "appreciative" of the gesture.
Then, I guess other presents would follow to the more responsive refs. A scooter is quite the tease. Finally, a 2k seafood lunch invitation to discuss things privately and may be close a deal...
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Yep. That is why getting guilty sentences - and making them stick - on fraud cases is incredibly difficult and rare. Usually those involve either reliable testimony from a third party, or one of the parties admitting their guilt
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Surely this level of copium has to be unhealthy.
Messilike performance from @FreckBarca so far.
So esentially we have the tax fraud angle (which seems a given at this point), the sporting fraud angle (which is easy to infer but difficult to prove) and the corruption angle (which affects individuals). Or am I forgetting something?
So esentially we have the tax fraud angle (which seems a given at this point), the sporting fraud angle (which is easy to infer but difficult to prove) and the corruption angle (which affects individuals). Or am I forgetting something?
I don’t know what code of ethics is used in Spain but typically, any gift is prohibited to any stakeholder, regardless of value. Therefore if there is such evidence that Negreira was handing out tokens, he has broken sporting ethics. Much like Barcelona paying Negreira is ethically and morally bankrupt. Bribe or not.
Nobody is taking what you’re writing seriously. You are trying much too hard to be an equivalent to FreckBarca. It ain’t gonna happen.
Are you under barca payroll to ensure neutrality in forums too or what? Because at this point this needs investigation too. Because come on..
You two are known pro-Franco/Flo accounts, signed up with the sole purpose of tarnishing FC Barca reputation and stature
@mods ban plz tks
You've definitely been to a Mexican beach restaurant on an evening when there's not a lot of customersNow I just want to see Laporta and Negreira with mariachi outfits
Imo there were definitely some envelopes too. He just forgot to mention those. Poor guy got Alzheimer anyway ...
Another great one https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35576677.amp
Simply as clarification. In the statement to the tax agency, Negreira said "pay for neutrality" as a personal hypothesis, nobody from Barcelona told him that.
4/4 - Compilation of additional background information:
---Barca are in the middle of a huge infraestructure remodelation called "Espai Barça". Works valued 1.5B€ plus interests. Now their credit rating is expected to drop and they don't have the funding yet, they planned to close it before 31 of March. Proof. They have already started demolishing part of the Camp Nou. Barca's own pictures
---There was a case of corruption scandal that involved Negreira and happened in the semifinals of the 1984 UEFA Cup between Anderlecht and Nottingham Forest. Former ref Albert Giménez said: "I am aware that they bought a referee, Guruzeta. Negreira was the linesman" Giménez's declaration. Constant Vanden Stock, president of Anderlecht admitted paying a million Belgian francs to the ref Gutuzeta. UEFA started an investigation and suspended the team for a year from European competitions. The main ref Gutuzeta died in a car accident and never testified. Negreira and the other linesman denied their participation on the corruption affairband ultimately UEFA declared the case had prescribed.Guardian article about said incident. You can read more here.
---Negreira was also involved in an embezzlement scandal in 2006 in relation to the Catalonian Referee Association: After a change of power, it was uncovered how that association —run by a friend of Negreira — had bought a lot of services from Negreira’s company, among other things 4,000 compendiums for referees, while it only had 1,400 members, a lot of video material, that nobody ever saw etc etc etc. Everything was also allegedly overpriced. This paints a pretty clear picture of Negreira. And it also casts doubt as to why FCB would keep hiring someone with such a dubious past. Link1 and Link2. (Big thanks to Messier1994 for this info)
---As previously stated, the Barca-Negreira affair was discovered by the reporter Sique Rodríguez from the program Que t'hi jugues from SER Barcelona. In this video Sique admits that they investigated as much as they could to find any leads that would mean other team (specially Real Madrid) was also involved in this affair but they found none.
This, together with the 'exclusivity' of Negreira's work might really mean it only affects Barcelona. We will see.
---If you are wondering why this affair is not bigger you might find useful to know that Barca also paid 7,2M€ to media companies such us diario Ara, Cope, Cadena Ser, Rac1, Mundo Deportivo and El Periódico or reporters such as Marçal Lorente. Proof1 and Proof2.
---In this video (that has English subtitles) Alfons Godall, the vicepresident of Barca 2003-2010 talks about several points:
--Barca (under Laporta's presidency) helped Villar get elected as president of Spanish FA.
--This started an era in which Barca were in good terms with the FA, with the La Liga institution and with the Referee Committee. (We recently learnt there are 7.3 millions reasons for this good relationship).
--Laporta also promoted a good relationship with the same institutions from UEFA, FIFA and the ECA.
So, who where in charge of the Referee Committees of UEFA and FIFA?
+The very same Villar was the president of FIFA's referee committee (also the VP of UEFA)
+Şenes Erzik was the deputy chairman of UEFA's Referee Committee and the Chief of Projects of UNICEF while Barca had UNICEF as a shirt sponsor.
In the very same video, the former Barca VP argues how not having such good relationships with these institutions would harm Barca from the point of view of sporting results. He specifically refers to the "saldo arbitral" or the difference in the refereeering regarding Barca and their rivals. Favourable and unfavourable ref decisions regarding Barca and their rivals.
Anyone remember what Negreira said he was getting paid for??
This "saldo arbitral" has been a fan talking point for years and, recently, is getting a little traction on Spanish press.
---Little extra info about "saldo arbitral" coming from this tweet.
Between 15/16 and 17/18 (114 games) Barca paid 1.6M to the ref VP. They had:
33 penalties for them 3 penalties against
23 red cards in favor 4 expulsions against
Between 18/19 and 20/21 (114 games) Barca made no payments to the ref VP. They had:
23 penalties for them 14 penalties against
15 red cards in favor 10 red cards against
More info about saldo arbitral:
---According to this article the last four Barcelona compliance officers have been sacked in quick succession since 2020 forlooking into irregular payments.
---Regarding this matter, Simeone, current Atlético de Madrid coach, said that "we all make a living out of this (football) and we would like to compete with the same possibilities" Minute 5:15 of this video
---Jesús Gil y Gil, the owner of Atlético de Madrid at the time already said in 1993 that Barca won the league thanks to Negreira. (1993 was the year Negreira stopped being a referee and started working for the ref committee). Proof of this declaration
---Ramón Mendoza, the president of Real Madrid at the time, already said in 1994 that there was indication of sport fraud involving Negreira (Proof of Mendoza's declaration)
---Negreira has declared he is in the early stages of Alzheimer and has presented medical evidence. Depending on the degree of this illness, Negreira could evade any criminal responsibility. Proof of this
---Luis Bassat was a candidate for the Barca presidency twice, in 2000 and 2003 (the period in which the ref payments started). He failed both times.
He gave an interview that you can read in Spanish here after losing the presidency elections against Laporta. In this interview he confesses the following:
"(I am feeling) Bad, but also liberated because [...] I have seen things that they say that I have to do that I will no longer have to deal with."
Q. What things?
A. For example, that a very important person from the club came to me and said: "And how do you want to be president, if there are many things you don't know?" What is it that I don't know?" And he answered me: "For example, how to bribe a referee.
--When Negreira stepped down as the ref VP in 2018 he started working in Mundo Deportivo (for those who don't know, Mundo Deportivo is the biggest Barca-centered newspaper in Spain). In this newspaper Negreira analyzed the ref performances for the whole 2019-2020 season. Coming from a Barca newspaper and written by a guy who earned millions thanks to Barca you can imagine the level of bias Barca fans learned from. Proof of this
--In the same year his son worked for TV also analysing ref performances while being employed by Barca (according to his own CV). He is the same guy who told some refs:
“You already know: here, calm down. Barcelona has a lot at stake and you can´t hesitate. You are more than prepared. You know exactly what you have to do." In this video he reviews the ref performance in a Clásico.
---In 1992 Negreira's son had an interview in Mundo Deportivo (biggest Barca-centered newspaper) and he explained how his father had granted him the possibility to train for La Masía. The interview reads 'It really isn't a case of influence peddling...' He also declared having being a Barca fan all his life. The original interview used to be online but not anymore, you can still read about it here.
---According to this article Tebas has said: "I don't think Barca bribed the refs. But they paid Negreira for 20 years. It feels as if they wanted to have an influence. I am definitely not saying they bribed the refs"
---Tebas (president of La Liga) and Soler plotted to kick Rubiales out and put Soler in his position. This means Tebas and Soler plotted to make Soler the president of Spanish FA. So, who is Soler?? Albert Soler was a Barca executive during 2014-2021(many of these years they were paying Negreira). Then he was Sports "Director General" 2021-2023. This is a high position in the Spanish gobernment, they are selected and fired directly by the the Council of Ministers. ((Also, after stepping down from the governmental position Soler has been named the Sports director of a consulting company called 'Acento Public Affairs'. One of the big clients they have is Tebas and La Liga. Proof in this article.Those two seem to have a good business relationship)). Soler also seems to be involved deeply in the Negreira case as you will see below.
There was recently a press call made jointly by the Spanish FA and the Referee Committee (CTA) regarding Negreira (the ref VP who received 6.6M€ from Barca) and his son.
They revelead that they made a huge investigation regarding every ref. A document from the investigation was leaked and it asked things like if they had been in contact with the son of Negreira or if he had taken them to a football stadium before and if any payments had been involved.
In this press call they didn't say much as they wanted to keep the results of the investigation private. The revealed that if the Spanish Prosecution filed a demand they will give them all the information they had, until then they would be kind of waiting.
They also said two things (did not revel any names)
-1 ref didn't collaborate.
-They found proof that 1 person with governmental attributions did in fact know that these payments were happening at the time but chose to not say anything or denounce it. The current thesis is that this person must be Albert Soler.
A high sports executive of the Government at the time and a former Barca executive during the time they were paying Negreira. According to this article the Spanish FA is considering taking legal action against him
----You can hear here Julio Salinas' declarations. The former Barca player has said:
"For me, Barça is guilty of corruption for having paid amounts with false invoices. It is a scandal to pay 8M€to a ref. It's like if I work as a scouter for Barça and they pay me a million a year because we are good friends. But I don't think Barca benefited from the referees. There has always been a tendency to harm Barca, the beneficiary is another club"
----This Barca official tweet from years ago reads: "Piqué: 'we don't use PEDs, we don't dive and we don't bribe refs' ". Just look at all the recent comments.
----While all this is being revealed all Barca fans are acting like this fan who was interviewed outside the Camp Nou the day the news of Messi leaving broke out. And this one guy believed that Florentino was behind the whole thing
TL; DR 1, 2
Mother of God, what barbarity!!!
You make copy paste of biased information, invented information or half-truths of pages without credibility and here people tell you what a great job and also believe everything.
Strange, isn’t it? While you try so hard and all you get in return is laughter. It really is unfair. Maybe you should pay people on here for more neutrality?Mother of God, what barbarity!!!
You make copy paste of biased information, invented information or half-truths of pages without credibility and here people tell you what a great job and also believe everything.
We certainly do not know but this was the news from yesterday:
According to this article Negreira was paid 3.9M€ by Barca 2013-2018, but his account never had more than 280k€. He constantly withdrew money. In that timeframe he withdrew 2.8M€ in 277 checks. Of these, 215 were smaller than 3k€ so he could hide them from the Spanish Tax Agency.
Certainly those 277 checks had to reach someone (as he didn't keep the money), we just don't know who.