Barcelona is facing serious allegations of bribery in the world of football. Spanish police recently carried out a search at the offices of the Spanish Football Federation as part of a legal inquiry.
This investigation is centred around claims that Barcelona made substantial payments over several years to the vice-president of Spain’s football refereeing committee.
The Guardia Civil, a law enforcement agency, confirmed that they conducted this search at the referee committee’s offices, located near Madrid. Importantly, no arrests were made during this operation, as the police were acting on the orders of the investigating judge.
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Barcelona accused of Bribery
Back in March, state prosecutors officially accused Barcelona of wrongdoing in the realm of sports, including corruption, fraudulent management, and the falsification of financial documents.
These accusations revolve around Barcelona allegedly paying a significant sum of €7.3 million (or £6.3 million) to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former referee who served as vice-president of the federation’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018. These payments were reportedly made through companies owned by Negreira.
Spanish news outlet El Debate has now reported that Barcelona is facing formal bribery charges from the public prosecutor.
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Barcelona denies all charges
Notably, former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, along with Negreira and Javier Enriquez Romero (Negreira’s son), are all implicated in these charges.
An investigating judge, Joaquin Aguirre Lopez, had previously suggested that Barcelona might have benefited from what he called ‘possible systemic corruption.’
However, Barcelona strongly denies any wrongdoing or conflicts of interest. They maintain that they paid for technical reports on referees but never attempted to influence their decisions during matches.
