Barcelona paid 1.3 million euros to ex-referee Enriquez Negreira

According to the newspaper AS and the programme Que t'hi jugues on Cadena Ser, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former Catalan referee, received 1,392,680 euros from Barça for at least three years (from 2016 to 2018). He did it through the company DASNIL 95 SL and for giving 'advice'.

According to the same report, the justice system is investigating this fact for an alleged crime of 'corruption between private individuals' and has been working on the matter for a long time. The former official was the sole partner of the company, which in 2016 billed Barça 532,728, euros; in 2017, 541,752 euros; and in 2018, 318,200, all during the mandate of Josep Maria Bartomeu. The billing reason was "technical advice". In the tax agency's report, "FCB wanted to make sure that arbitration decisions weren't going to go against them."

From sources within the club's management consulted by those who have published the information, "at that time this commercial relationship is recognised and it is maintained that these works were carried out and that the reports of DASNIL 95 SL are archived and that they can present them at any time before a court. They paid (a lot or a little) but the work was done."

Albert Soler, the club's former director of professional sports, and Òscar Grau, the former CEO of the Blaugrana club, have already testified in the case. The tax agency says no document has been provided that accredits such a commercial relationship, but that at the time they were declared and tried to deduct, which put the same tax agency on alert, ending up carrying out a tax inspection in which it discovered the payments.

FC Barcelona responded to the information from Cadena Ser and As with a statement in which they gave their version of events. Barça explained in the statement that they had contracted "in the past the services of an external technical consultant, who provided, in video format, technical reports on youth players in Spain for the club's technical staff" and that now "this type of outsourced service is provided by a professional assigned to the football department".

FC Barcelona also expressed its annoyance because "it regrets that this information appears precisely at the best sporting moment of the current season".

Finally, it announced that it "will take legal action against anyone who spoils the club's image with possible insinuations contrary to the reputation of the entity that may arise as a result of this information".