The prosecutor’s office is now investigating the Spanish Club for their payments of seven million euros to the vice president of referees, Enrique Negreira, over the last 20 years.
The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office investigation for the alleged payments of 1.4 million euro, made by FC Barcelona, between the years of 2016 and 2018, to José María Enríquez is just the latest scandal the team has seen itself involved in, in the last two decades.
Negreira is a former referee and number two on the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) between 1994 and 2018. In 2001, the club’s president, Joan Gaspar, reached out to Negreira to acquire his services, and thus the relationship between the club and, at the time, the vice-president of referees began. But this is the latest of many scandals in the last 20 years.
What are Barcelona’s biggest scandals in the last twenty years?
The Neymar signing: This scandal caused Sandro Rosell to resign as president of Barcelona. It all began when Jordi Cases, a team’s paying dues member, wanted to know how the team acquired the player. Barcelona claims that they paid 57 million for the Brazilian, but the investigation revealed a payment of 40 million euros to the player’s father.
The payments began in 2010, with 10 million, and then later in 2013, with 30 million. Rosell left the team amidst the investigation. Later, in 2016, the team accepted their culpability and had to pay 5,5 million euro in fines. The whole signing of the player cost the team upwards of 100 million euro.
Moreover, in 2017 Sandro Rosell was sent to jail for two years on money laundering charges. His marketing company got paid 20 million dollars by the president of the Brazilian Federation for the publicity of friendly games by the Brazilian team. In 2019 he was set free on the grounds that the lack of evidence and clear sentencing would rule in favor of Rosell.
Lionel Messi and the Spanish Tax agency: In 2010, a process against the then-Barcelona forward was started because of his involvement in the intentional defrauding of the Spanish tax agency, Hacienda. The Spanish government maintained that the Argentine, with his father Jorge Messi, created fake corporations in Belize and Uruguay in 2007-09 to defraud the state. The companies were under the name of the mother. The defense stated that Messi was not involved in this and that it was all done under the advisement of their accountants.
Messi and his father were sentenced to 21 months in jail. However, Messi did not go to jail Because in Spain, for these types of crimes, if the sentence is under two years, the person is not mandated to go to prison physically if it is a first offense. But he is a convicted person in Spain. Therefore, if he ever commits another crime in the country, he will go to jail even if the sentence is under two years.
In addition to Messi, Javier Mascherano, Alexis Sánchez, and Adriano Correia paid a combined total of about €7 million in fines and restitution for their roles in defrauding Hacienda.
Pique and the Spanish Super Cup: Spanish newspaper El Confidencial published audios and documents back in 2022 that indicated a possible agreement between Kosmos, a company owned by Gerard Pique, and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
The deal would see a multimillion-dollar commission be paid to the player for his help in transferring the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia. The Spanish government is currently investigating the contract to determine if any wrongdoing was done.
Barcagate: The latest of the scandals. As mentioned before, the team paid Enrique Negreira, ex-vice president Technical Committee of Referees in Spain, 7 million euros from 2001 until 2018. The Spanish prosecutor’s office officially accused the team of three corruption charges.
The team states that they paid Negreira for reports on the referees and to create a neutral environment between them and Real Madrid. It is unclear if the prosecutor’s office believes this claim. The process is only starting, so we can expect more problems for the Catalans