The 10 keys to the scandal of arbitration payments related to Barcelona

It was presumably during the presidency of Joan Gaspart when services were contracted Jose Maria Enriquez Negreirawho was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) from 2004 to 2018. However, other sources indicate that the relationship with the former Catalan First Division international collegiate began long before he Gaspart assumed the presidency of the Barça club and even the last stage of Josep Lluis Nunez. The agreement was broken at the time of Josep Maria Bartomeu, in 2018, when Barça had to cut expenses. Enriquez Negreira collaborated during the mandates of Gaspart, Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu.

He FC Barcelona would have paid around 7 million euros to Enriquez Negreira since 2001. This is stated in the investigation of the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office, at the request of the Tax agency, for payments to the company Dasnil SL of which the former collegiate was a partner along with his son Javier, according to what the newspaper ‘El País’ published on Thursday. The amounts received by the arbitration leader increased significantly during the last stage of the first mandate of laporta (specifically in the 2009-2010 season), when around half a million euros left the club’s coffers for Dasnil. Other sources cite payments to up to three companies linked to the former collegiate. Apart from Dasnil, there would also be payments to Soccercam SL (owned by Javier Enríquez) and Tresep 2014 SL, which belonged to Josep Contreras Arjonanow deceased, who was a director of Barça with Núñez, Gaspart and Bartomeu, as well as vice president of the Catalan federation.

The former collegiate, already in his arbitration command aspect, explained before the tax agency that his work at Barça was based on “ensuring that no decisions were made against it& rdquor; of the club during the matches and that the team received a “neutral” in arbitrations. The son charged for his services as a sports coach through a company he owned, Soccer Camp. Javier EnriquezAccording to the version of some referees, he accompanied the referees to the Camp Nou and had lunch or dinner with them depending on the time of the match. It was common to see him around the stadium in every League or Cup match that Barça played.

Because he found a hole in the accounts of the dasnil company; that is, money that was not declared to the Treasury. These are unjustified payments, according to investigations. Apparently, the invoices exist, but Enriquez Negreira said it offered verbal services and he was unable to provide a documentary explanation before the Tax Agency that opened a tax investigation into his company for irregularities in the invoices between 2016 and 2018 (no further look has been made because the alleged crime has already prescribed). In addition, the former collegiate has refused to testify before the prosecution, alleging that he suffers from a beginning of alzheimer. Some sources indicate that it was the son of Enríquez Negreira who did not pass the invoices to the Treasury, which Barcelona apparently did, and when checking the payments they saw that something did not add up.

Was Josep Maria Bartomeu the president who dispensed with the services of Enriquez Negreira in 2018. It did so driven by a policy of cutting expenses, due to the critical economic situation of the club The former Barça leader himself stressed it when he testified as a witness in the case before the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office.

President laporta He sent an official video through the club’s channels shortly after the investigation was made public in which he questioned whether the issue arose now when Barça leads the League. Some sectors consider that he was unconvincing when they censored the sporting interdict. Josep Maria Bartomeu explained the reasons for the economic crisis for which he broke the agreement with Enriquez Negreira while Joan Gaspart He has given all kinds of explanations in different media defending the entity: “Barça has never done anything wrong or illegal”, he said.

javier thebes, president of LaLiga, wanted to clarify that there will be no sports sanctions for Barcelona. “We have studied the case and we have seen that a sanction is not possible because from the year 2018, when the issue ended, to 2023 five years have passed and this type of punishment prescribes after three years.” Real spanish soccer federation It has opened a file with Barça and the Referees Committee to try to clarify the situation. Likewise, the federation has wanted to distance itself from the facts and has ensured that will appear in legal proceedings derived from relevant investigations.

He Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) has also issued a statement in which it has disassociated itself from the case by ensuring that Enriquez Negreira He is no longer part of the arbitration board since the change of leaders that occurred in 2018. “No active referee or member of the bodies of the CTA You can carry out any work that is likely to enter into a conflict of interest & rdquor ;, indicated the estate in the note while offering to collaborate with the Justice if necessary. Among the former referees who have spoken is Cesar Muniz Fernandez, Asturian collegiate who was active from 2000 to 2013. “For a person from the house, from the Federation, to play this double game seems fatal to me and should not be allowed. If arbitration has always been under suspicion, imagine now & rdquor ;, he has declared on TVE. At once, Ibon Urizar Azpitarte, an active referee until 1991, has been very harsh in his statements to Basque radio stations, assuring that the former Catalan referee was a “black sheep” and that he was “staining the refereeing establishment”. An atmosphere of despondency, therefore, seems to have seized the arbitrators when they were under suspicion, although all the parties emphasize that the one who was number 2 of the CTA had no hand in the appointment of arbitrators.

Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira He directed a total of 132 matches in the First Division and another 9 internationals. He never whistled at Barça or Espanyol by being attached to the Catalan College of Referees. He is 77 years old and was the right hand of Victoriano Sanchez Arminio when he was in charge of the arbitration body. At that time, enriquez He was officially in charge of preparing the reports of the First and Second Division referees. He also did the dirty work that he didn’t like to do. Sanchez Arminio, as explained by people familiar with the relationship between the two, how to communicate to the referees that they were left out for a time to whistle due to an error or that they lost the category for not having met expectations. Other information indicates that in 2019 he threatened Barça with removing all the alleged dirty laundry if they did not reach an agreement with him. However, he never followed through on the threat.

The investigation into the case has made the front pages of the main general and sports newspapers published in Madrid, as well as the usual television gatherings that take place in the Spanish capital. The international pressHe has also echoed the facts. In France, it has been where there has been the greatest impact far from the Spanish borders. Thus, the investigation has been dealt with by newspapers such as ‘L’ Équipe’, ‘Le Parisien’ and ‘Le Figaro’. In it United Kingdom ‘The Athletic’ (which belongs to the New York Times), the ‘Daily Mail’ or the BBC, as well as the sports newspaper ‘A Bola’ in Portugal, have also been used.