Tax Authorities Clear Barcelona: No Referee Bribery with Negreira Payments

The Regional Inspectorate of the Tax Agency in Catalonia has released a report concluding that payments made by FC Barcelona to José María Enríquez Negreira, former Vice-President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), were not used to bribe officials or influence sporting results. This stance aligns with the arguments of the "Blaugrana," who have consistently maintained that these payments were for refereeing reports, not for manipulating competition outcomes.

The report's findings acknowledge that over 7.5 million euros were paid to Negreira between 2001 and 2018. However, it found no evidence that these sums were used for "trading confidential information from the refereeing committee, influencing referee appointments, or directly participating in changing match results."

The new report also highlights the significant finding that "no payment to any referee has been identified, with all outgoing transactions from the bank account having been checked." The document further states that "there is a complete lack of evidence that results could have been influenced." The Tax Agency also emphasized that José María Enríquez Negreira did not officiate matches during the years FC Barcelona made these payments.

After reviewing the report's conclusions, Miguel Galán, President of CENAFE, published an extensive message on social media, summarizing that the Tax Agency "rejects the existence of any indications of sporting corruption to be attributed to Football Club Barcelona."

It's worth recalling that Barcelona's legal department is finalizing preparations for legal action following accusations in the "Negreira case" from Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid. The "Los Blancos" boss explicitly stated, "they have stolen 7 titles from me," a sentiment echoed the following day by his coach, Álvaro Arbeloa. Pérez also asserted that the club was preparing a report of over 500 pages detailing alleged instances of referee favoritism to send to UEFA, with the intention of seeing Barcelona sanctioned.