Barcelona ‘received threatening fax from former referee over payments’

The former vice-president of Spanish football’s Referees’ Committee sent a threatening fax to Barcelona in 2019 after the club informed him they were stopping payments to him, according to El Mundo in Spain.

It was revealed earlier this week that Barcelona paid a company owned by former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira £1.2m, during a two-year period for technical advice on referees, while he was vice-president of the Referees’ Committee.

On Friday El Mundo published a copy of a fax sent to the club after they dispensed with his services in which he says he would ‘publicise all the irregularities I have known and experienced at first hand in relation to the club’, if an agreement were not reached between the two parties.

The fax also states that Enriquez Negreira was ‘surprised and disappointed’ by then Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu’s decision to end the working relationship.

‘After all this time together I take it as a personal insult,’ the fax says, later adding that: ‘another scandal would not favour the club’.

Despite the fax Barcelona did completely cut ties with Enriquez Negreira in 2018 and there were no subsequent revelations.

Spanish radio Cadena Ser revealed earlier in the week that Barcelona made payments to Enriquez’ company DASNIL 95 from 2016 to 2018, ending at the same time Enriquez Negreira left his position as vice-president of the Referees’ Committee.

Barcelona issued a statement on Wednesday in which it admitted to having contracted the services of an ‘external’ consultant who ‘provided technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to complement information required by the coaching staff’, something that it claimed was ‘common practice in professional football clubs’.

Other clubs do employ former referees as consultants but to have done so while Enriquez Negreira was still vice-president of the Referees’ Committee has left Barcelona and Spanish football with questions to answer.

El Mundo reported on Friday that payments from Barcelona to Enriquez Negreira’s company date back to 2001 and total €6,659m (£5,915m).

LaLiga head Javier Tebas said on Thursday that no action could be taken by the Spanish League because the offences date back further than three years. The Spanish Football Federation say since current president Luis Rubiales took power in 2018 Enriquez Negreira has not been part of the Referees’ Committee and that it is now prohibited for any member of the body to be employed as a consultant by any club.

The stance of the two football authorities in Spain would leave any possible punishment in the hands of Spain’s public prosecutor but for it to take action it would have to be proved that the results of matches were influenced by the contractual relationship that existed between the club and Enriquez Negreira.

The current president of Spain’s Referees’ Committee Luis Medina Cantalejo said on Thursday: ‘I have been 11 years in the First Division and I can say that there has been absolutely no hint, no advice from me or my colleagues, many of whom are in the media today, about having any kind of bias in results, in decision-making that could benefit one team or another.’

According to Cadena Ser Barcelona still pay for advice on referees but they currently employ a former referee and pay him less than €25,000 (£22,000) euros a year.