Ex-ref Roca: Negreira is a scoundrel who sold smoke for the price of gold

Former international referee, Juan Ansuátegui Roca, spoke openly in an interview about the 'Negreira case' and his now famous reports, which Ansuátegui said he finds it hard to believe that someone would pay "the price of gold" for statistics "available to anyone", smoke that Barça bought like "idiots".

The ex-ref coincided for three seasons as a colleague with Enríquez Negreira, of whom he confessed that "he never seemed to me to be a reliable person, nor serious. I never had a good relationship with him. He was a ghost".

"I find it unbelievable that someone paid for that. The information Negreira could give him was statistics that were available to anyone. I think a scoundrel sold smoke and some idiots bought it. And at the price of gold, because they didn't pay for it out of their own pockets," he said, in an interview for La Voz de Galicia. "Between Enríquez and some Barcelona employees, they set up the scam for years".

"Negreira boasted of having a small group of referees who, whenever they went to Barcelona, would meet him for lunch or dinner before the match. I think it was Enríquez who used them to show that he had influence. It was more of a parade, a way of selling smoke," continued Roca.

"I would like to see those reports. It would give us all a fit of laughter. I find it hard to believe that he would really make those kinds of insinuations to favour Barcelona in a match. If Sanchez Arminio had known about it, or anyone had spoken about it, Negreira would have lasted ten minutes.

"One thing is what he was selling to the outside world, which I'm sure made people believe that those referees were following his instructions, and another thing is the reality. Put yourself in the mindset of a referee. If they received any compensation, it wouldn't be enough to retire on. And if you keep quiet, you might think that the referee next to you is going to take it. There was money to be made in my day, and even more now. I would be very surprised if a referee would allow himself to be bought for sums that would not allow him to retire. It's as if a top flight footballer, who earns two million a year, allows himself to be bought for 10,000 euros. I don't see that in the elite. It could happen in the lower categories, but in the First Division I find it hard to believe.

"He never, either directly or indirectly, made the slightest insinuation to me that I should have any influence on a match."