The Spanish court has charged (the equivalent of an indictment in France) FC Barcelona, ex-executives of the club and ex-arbitrator José Maria Enriquez Negreira for “corruption”, “breach of trust” and “false business records” in the case of suspicious money payments from the Catalan club to the former vice-president of referees, a Barcelona court ruled on Friday. These lawsuits, decided by the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office, notably target Barça as a legal person, as well as two of its ex-presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell. This investigation was opened last May.
The Catalan club is accused of having paid from 2001 to 2018 around 6.6 million euros to José Maria Enriquez Negreira, via his company Dasnil, to ensure “neutral” arbitrations. Asked regarding this affair at a public event on March 7, the current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, had reaffirmed the innocence of the club, explaining that “Barça has never bought a referee nor tried to do so”.
