“The worst thing that happened to Spanish football.” What’s new in the Barça-Negreira case

Tebas can’t sleep at night.

Barcelona continue to face sanctions over possible referee bribery. Negreira’s case continues to be studied at UEFA, La Liga President Javier Tebas is very concerned.

In a nutshell, the essence of the matter: a month ago it was revealed that Barcelona had been paying the vice-president of the Technical Refereeing Committee of the Spanish Football Federation, Enriques Negreira, for three years. Barça claimed to have paid him to report on referees.

It turned out that Negreira received at least 7.3 million euros from the club since 2001, but the court will focus on the last ten years (due to the statute of limitations): the 3 million received by the former boss of the referees from 2014 to 2018 are of particular interest .

New details: Barca players told how to deal with different referees, club investors worried

• Marca reported that Javier Enriquez Romero, Negreira’s son, sent reports to Barcelona on how players should deal with certain referees. For example, Neymar was advised not to exaggerate contacts with opponents in matches refereeed by Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva, otherwise he would stop recording violations.

Jordi Alba and Sergi Busquets recommended not to argue with the referees, and Luis Suarez – not to feign, not argue and behave exemplary in matches where Iñaki Bikandi Garrido works. Referee José Munuera Montero was noted as particularly strict towards Gerard Pique.

• Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia writes about the club’s disgruntled investors who are funding Espai Barça, a project to modernize the Camp Nou and surrounding areas. They are worried about the UEFA investigation and possible suspension from tournaments. Investors want to know what the worst-case scenario could be for Barcelona.

Prior to this, the investors sent Joan Laporte a questionnaire with twenty questions about the possible consequences of the Negreira case. The president of Barça filled it out and wrote a letter expressing his personal opinion. But this is not enough for investors, they want more detailed explanations.

• The prosecutor’s office listed in the Negreira case his services to Barcelona – from his own words. He made recommendations on card appeals and reported on disagreements between the RFEF and the league.

• The UEFA investigation is officially underway. The regulations of the organization provide for a ban for one season if the club was directly and / or indirectly involved in influencing the outcome of matches at the national or international level. At the same time, the decision of the national arbitration or state court is sufficient for the union.