The scandal that shakes the League

Alleged irregularities discovered by the Tax Administration in the operations from 2014 to 2018 of the Dasnil-owned company Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, of the then vice-president of the Technical Referees Committee, led to the biggest scandal in contemporary Spanish football. The relationship between that company and Barcelona served to expose the connection of alleged bribery for almost two decades in which he is a judge silvia lopez He had seen enough evidence of the crime. Up to three are accused, corruption among individuals in sports, dishonest administration and falsification of documents.

When appearing before the Tax Administration, to which he had access Earth, Enríquez Negreira said that he had direct contact with the presidents of the Barça club, denied that he bought referees with the money obtained and justified his hiring because “in Barcelona they felt that they were damaged and they were benefiting other teams”. On the bench, according to the investigation, in addition to Enríquez Negreira and his son, two former presidents — Rosell and Bartomeu — and two former directors of Barcelona.

Persons in the cause, league and Federation, themselves unable to investigate and dispense justice, because they tied their regulations to a three-year statute of limitations for the most serious criminal offenses established by the Law on Sports. The last payments, from 2018, would prescribe. Not so for Uefa which, in the current rules for participation in the Champions League, provides for the exclusion of any club involved in an activity whose aim is to influence the outcome of a match, whether in a national or international competition, from the entry into force of Article 50 (3) of its Statute. That is, from April 27, 2007.

In the lawsuit filed against Barcelona, ​​the public ministry claims that the million-dollar payments made to Enríquez Negreira, while he was in the position of vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, were aimed at “implementing actions that favored FC Barcelona in its decision-making.” the decisions of the matches that the club played, and thus also in the results of the competition. Apart from the criminal implications for those involved, if the Prosecution’s theses are proven, UEFA is obliged to take sanctioned measures.

The investigation considers it credible that, at least between 2001 and 2018, Barcelona paid Enríquez Negreira 7.3 million euros. Although the judicial focus, since these are non-statutory offenses, focuses on the years Negreira reaped through two companies, Nilsat (1.2 million between 2014 and 2015) and Dasnil (1.6 million , between 2016 and 2018), the IRS concluded that Barcelona used seven payment companies and that they were definitively terminated only two months after Negreira was sacked.

Numerous contradictions and suspicions about the involvement of third parties

The president of Barcelona, ​​Joan Laporta, addressed his partners in a video message yesterday. “We will not only defend ourselves, but also attack,” he warned. Laporta will be called as a witness and must explain why he continued the payments to Enríquez Negreira during his previous term and multiplied their amount.

Barcelona’s explanations, after the million-dollar payments to Enríquez Negreira were announced, reinforce suspicions. The president admitted the payments during his first term as president. “The reports had documentary and audiovisual support. And we didn’t put companies in the middle, we paid directly,” he said. However, the Tax Agency concludes that Barcelona used up to seven payment companies.

Another contradiction in the story that Barcelona has put together is the utility it has given to reports that it has been paying an exorbitant price. “It was a surprise for me, I didn’t even know they existed,” replied Ernesto Valverde, the coach in the 2017-18 season, when he was still paying Negreira. “We didn’t know anything. The players already know the referees. Some coaches come from outside and need help. I understand that these reports were more for them,” said Gerard Piqué, who played for Barcelona for the ten seasons – between 2008 and 2018 – in which the payments were made. However, in 2001, when the Negreira deal began, technicians were Serra Ferrer and Rexach During the decade that coincided with Piqué’s presence, Barcelona were coached by Guardiola, Vilanova, Martino, Luis Enrique and Valverde.

The tax administration suspects that Negreira could have paid third parties with the cash he was constantly withdrawing. Between 2016 and 2019 alone, he took out more than half a million euros whose whereabouts are unknown. Although suspicion may fall on the arbitration group, the Ministry of Finance does not rule out that these third parties could be former directors of Barcelona.

A possible sanction in European competitions that Barcelona faces would be a severe economic downturn. In the summer, Laporta sold the club’s assets in four installments and pledged future income in order to have liquidity. Between June and July, in the first two levers activated, Laporta sold the exploitation of 25 percent of his television rights for the next 25 years to the American investment group Sixth Street Partners, for which he received 667 million euros. After that, he got rid of 49.5% of Barça Studios —the club’s production company— for 200 million in two stages.

Ansuátegui Roca: “Negreira and some Barcelona employees committed fraud”

Pablo Carballo

With twelve seasons in the First League, eleven of them as an international, Juan Ansuátegui Roca (Castellón, 1956) coincided, first as a teammate for three seasons, and later for almost a decade when he assumed one of the vice-presidents of the league’s Technical Committee of Referees, with José Maria Enriquez Negreiro.

—What was Enríquez Negreira like?

— He never seemed to me to be a reliable or serious person. Apparently, he was already one of those who liked the camera to focus on him. I never had a good relationship with him. It was a ghost. I didn’t feel it either when I was a manager. The president was Sánchez Arminio, and there were three vice-presidents: Ángel Franco Martínez, Óscar Martín Prego —Galician— and José María Enríquez Negreira. If they had asked me at the time which of the four could have entered into this kind of fraud, I would certainly have been right.

“The racket smells of corruption. You were a consultant to Villarreal after retirement, do you understand these payments for these alleged reports?

“It seems incredible to me that someone would pay for that.” The information Negreira was able to give him were statistics that were available to everyone. I think the scoundrel was selling smoke and some idiots were buying it from him. In addition, at the price of gold, because they did not pay for it out of their own pockets. Enríquez and some Barcelona employees had been preparing the fraud for years.

“But it’s hard to think that anyone would pay for nothing.”

“I’d like to see those reports.” That will make us all laugh. And you paid that price? Negreira boasted that he had a small group of referees who, whenever they went to Barcelona, ​​stayed with him for lunch or dinner before the game. I think Enríquez used them to show that he has influence. It was more of a paripe, a way of selling smoke.

“Did you eat with him too?”

I’ve never had dinner with a manager. While José Plaza was still president of the Technical Referee Committee, he spent the summer in Benicassim, eight kilometers from me. While he was active, I never met him. When he retired, we would see each other every summer and reminisce about stories. The judge is worse than Caesar’s wife, in terms of looking fair.

— One could think that he was trying to influence those comrades at those dinners.

— I find it hard to believe that he really gave them such insinuations in order to favor Barcelona in the match. If Sánchez Arminio had known about it or if anyone had tried, Negreira would have lasted ten minutes. What he sold abroad is one thing, which surely convinced that those judges followed his instructions, but the reality is another. Put yourself in the judge’s mindset. If they had received any compensation, it would not have been retirement. And, if you remain silent, you may think that the one next to you will leave. In my time, money was already being made, and now much more. I would be very surprised if the arbitrator allowed him to be bought for amounts that would not mean his retirement. It’s as if a first league soccer player, who earns two million a year, allows himself to be bought for 10,000 euros. I don’t see that in the elite. It could happen in smaller categories, but in the First League I find it hard to believe.

— Would you put your hand in the fire because no partner was involved?

— We are in the most corrupt country in Europe, with third world levels. There is in politics, in the judiciary, in companies, football has hardly escaped this. I don’t put my hand in the fire for anyone, I put it for myself. He never, directly or indirectly, gave me the slightest insinuation that I had any influence in the party. Never.

— What was Enríquez Negreira’s role with the judges?

— He was in charge, when we had two or three annual meetings, to tell you in a private conversation how your classification was going based on the reports he had from the matches you refereed. There were three groups, those who were doing well, regular and bad. He gave you technical assessments.

— Can you use those scales as blackmail for pressure?

— The decision was not made by him, it was made by the president. He was just reporting, nothing more. And these classifications had to be taken with a lot of tweezers. I was always wayward and trusted them little. How is the 8 to 8’4 arbitration scale?