La Liga

A shocking news report revealed that FC Barcelona paid 1.4 million euros to the former vice president of Spain's referees committee between 2016 and 2018.

Heading into their Europa League group stage fixture against Manchester United on Thursday, Barca currently sit at the top of La Liga with a double-digit lead and are cruising on a 11-game win streak. I think it has happened in years I was not involved with the club, but I will always defend the institution.” Bartomeu noted that the payments started as early as 2003 and denied any wrongdoing regarding the corrupt allegations. [Barcelona has since released a statement](https://www.fcbarcelona.cat/ca/club/noticies/3065705/comunicat-del-fc-barcelona?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=fcbarcelona_cat&utm_campaign=ae594768-83df-475b-9491-7c78edc6095f) confirming that the club “contracted the services of an external technical consultant” and that the said consultant provided services considered “a usual practice in professional football clubs.” [an exclusive report by Spanish outlet Cadena SER came out](https://cadenaser.com/cataluna/2023/02/15/la-fiscalia-investiga-a-la-sociedad-de-un-exvicepresidente-de-los-arbitros-que-recibio-pagos-del-barca-por-asesoramiento-mientras-ejercia-su-cargo-sercat/) detailing [FC Barcelona’s](https://everythingbarca.com/) under-the-table monetary payments to a company owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, who was at the time a La Liga referee and vice president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees. A shocking news report revealed that FC Barcelona paid 1.4 million euros to the former vice president of Spain’s referees committee between 2016 and 2018.

Disgraced former president Josep Maria Bartomeu claimed that payments were made legitimately and then later finished as part of cost cuts. An official Barca ...

"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. It is not a coincidence." In the club's organization chart it is in the department of football with full normality. 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. "Along with this, this same external consultant gave refereeing advice, which is very usual at the big clubs, as has always been done. Barcelona regrets that this information appeared just at the best sporting moment of the present season.

According to reports in Spain, a company owned by a former La Liga referee was paid €1.4m by FC Barcelona between 2016 and 2018.

Barcelona are alleged to have made payments of €1.4 million (£1.2 million) to former La Liga referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Xavi commented: "I’ve been told we have done a public statement, and I follow what the club says. those are things we work on from a long time ago, but on an internal level.” “We always analyse referees from an internal perspective. “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. [was accused of corruption by the police in 2020](https://www.sportbible.com/football/football-news-barcelona-president-josep-bartomeu-has-been-accused-of-corruption-20200904), says the payments, of which there were three in total, were legitimate and were active from 2003 onwards but came to a halt due to the club's need to cut costs. [Cadena SER, ](https://cadenaser.com/cataluna/2023/02/15/la-fiscalia-investiga-la-societat-dun-ex-vicepresident-dels-arbitres-que-va-rebre-pagaments-del-barca-per-assessorament-mentre-exercia-el-carrec-sercat)via [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomsanderson/2023/02/15/fc-barcelona-could-face-la-liga-relagation-following-15-million-referee-payment-allegations/?sh=74ae3fe054fb), say the Barcelona prosecutor's office alleges that the payments were made to former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, during the presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu.

Global giants and current La Liga title race leaders Barcelona could face drastic consequences after multiple reports in Spanish media have reported that ...

Enríquez Negreira has also acknowledged that he advised the club on the referees that he was going to find in each game.” Said reports have detailed a timeline of events linking Barça to non-invoiced payments totaling £1.2m that were sent to the former vice president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees José María Enríquez Negreira between 2016-18. The more staggering sums of money flow into the game, the greater the need to be successful in it.

La Liga president Javier Tebas says Barcelona won't be facing punishments over payments that they made to a refereeing administrator.

An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also been to the FA Cup and League Cup finals for FFT and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. You will receive a verification email shortly. “We’ll see how the investigation turns out.” Get the best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. Mark White has been a staff writer on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, writing pieces for both online and the magazine. La Liga boss Javier Tebas says the time has passed to punish Barcelona