Barcelona referee scandal: La Liga club denies wrongdoing after paying $1.5 million to referee chief’s company

Barcelona paid nearly $1.5 million to the former refereeing committee vice-president Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira via a company of his between 2016-18, according to a bombshell Spanish language report from Cadena SER. Disgraced former president Josep Maria Bartomeu claimed that payments were made legitimately and then later finished as part of cost cuts.

An official Barcelona statement, which confirmed receipt of refereeing reports from a company, said, “Knowing the facts which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating related to payments made to external companies, [the club] wants to make clear:

“That in the past Barcelona contracted the services of an external technical consultant, who provided, in video form, technical reports referring to players from the youth categories of the Spanish state for the club’s technical secretary.

“Additionally, the relationship with this external provider expanded to technical reports related to professional refereeing, with a view to complementing the information required by the first-team and academy coaching staff, a usual practice in professional football clubs.

“At present, these types of external services fall to a professional assigned to the Area of Football. Barcelona regrets that this information appeared just at the best sporting moment of the present season.

“Barcelona will take legal action against those who damage the club’s image with possible insinuations contrary to the reputation of the institution which could be produced based on this information.”

According to Bartomeu, similar payments have existed since the early 2000s despite ex-Barca supremo Joan Gaspart denying any such sums. Joan Laporta who became president in 2003 after Gaspart’s three-year reign ended and returned in 2021 confirmed that more payments exist, but maintained they are for normal consulting services.

Craving more soccer coverage? Listen below and follow House of Champions, a CBS Sports soccer podcast, bringing you top-notch analysis, commentary, picks and more. 

“After the information which has appeared in Cadena Ser, it has to be said that Barcelona in the past had contracted the services of an external consultant for reports on players from youth categories of the Spanish state,” said Laporta. “Along with this, this same external consultant gave refereeing advice, which is very usual at the big clubs, as has always been done.

“Indeed, we have this refereeing advice in-house now. In the club’s organization chart it is in the department of football with full normality. The news surprises me, it is not a coincidence that it has come out now. I want to communicate that any tendentious interpretation that insinuates things that are not right will receive a proportional and adequate response from the club. So we reserve all the actions we need to defend Barcelona’s honor and its interests.

“And I want to make it very clear, cules: it is not a coincidence that this information has come out now, information like this when things are going well. It is not a coincidence.”

Barcelona prosecutor’s office is investigating Enriquez Negreira’s DASNIL 95 SL for corruption between individuals which stems from a treasury inspection of tax irregularities which Cadena SER reports as being worth almost $1.5m from 2016 until 2018. The investigation is also happening because Enriquez Negreira did not provide documentation proving that he was providing Barca with a service.

Enriquez Negreira told Cadena SER that his advice was verbal and included players’ conduct with referees. DASNIL was owned by Enriquez Negreira and operated by his son Javier Enriquez Romero and Enriquez Negreira has denied that he ever favored Barca in any refereeing decisions or disputes.

“The CTA wants to make it clear that Mr Enriquez Negreira has not been part of any federative structure since 2018,” read a Comite Tecnico de Arbitro (CTA), which is responsible for refereeing in Spain, statement. “The CTA deplores behaviours that could violate its ethics code. No active referee or member of the CTA bodies may carry out any work that is likely to constitute a conflict of interest. The CTA is making itself available to authorities to offer its full collaboration with any type of information it can provide.”