Joan Laporta has to go to court. © ANSA / Alejandro Garcia

Referee affair: Barça boss accused

In the affair surrounding the millions paid by FC Barcelona to a referee official years ago, the Spanish judiciary has now also brought charges against the current club president, Joan Laporta.

19 October 2023

From: dpa

A spokesman for FC Barcelona confirmed corresponding media reports on Thursday upon request. Investigating judge Joaquín Aguirre's allegations relate to Laporta's first term at FC Barcelona from 2003 to 2010, the newspaper Mundo Deportivo reported.

The judge checked the statute of limitations rules and came to the conclusion that the possible violations of the law in the form of payments by the club to a company owned by the then deputy head of the CTA referee committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, were not statute-barred. FC Barcelona initially did not respond to the content of the accusation.

Serious allegations

It was only at the end of September that the police searched the premises of the national football association RFEF. The investigation began in March after a complaint from the public prosecutor's office. Between 2001 and 2018, the Catalan club is said to have transferred a good 7,3 million euros to a company owned by Enríquez Negreira. Investigators suspect that these payments were intended to favor Barça in the referees' decision-making.

Serious allegations are being made against FC Barcelona. © AFP / PAU BARRENA

The complaint was initially directed against Enríquez Negreira and the club and also against its former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu as well as other ex-Barça officials. Both club representatives and Enríquez Negreira admitted the business connections, but at the same time rejected the accusation of corruption. Laporta said the club had engaged consultant services. But that was “very normal in football at the big clubs,” he asserted.

Enríquez Negreira was a referee in Spain's first division between 1977 and 1992 and then vice-president of the CTA between 1994 and 2018. The 78-year-old said in interviews that as CTA vice-president he did not give FC Barcelona preferential treatment in any decision or referee appointment. His company Dasniel 95 SL gave the club verbal advice, for example how the players should behave depending on the referee.