Bombshell: Barcelona gave 1.4 million to a referee company – What the Catalans answer

research for mega corruption scandalconcerning Barcelona, ​​the Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona has started!

In accordance with Cadena SERin his time Josep Maria Bartomeuthat is, from 2016 to 2018, Barcelona paid the amount of 1.4 million euros to the former referee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira! The money, in particular, was given to his company, while at that time he was its vice president Technical Committee arbitration of the Spanish Football Federation.

As the publication states, the money was given to three parties and the last payment, in fact, was made when he left his duties at the arbitration committee!

For his part, the former referee took a stand on the matter, saying he was simply providing advice to the players on how to treat referees. The investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, however, is related to an audit of the State for tax irregularities, since the former arbitrator he did not provide any documents proving that he provided services to Barcelona!

In fact, Bartomeu has already made statements, highlighting this money were “cut” in 2018, in order to reduce expenses, while underlining that, when he took over the reins of the team, it was already spending money on these services. Other members of the -then- board of directors also claim the same.

Officially, moreover, Barcelona also took a position through a statement, in which it states:

In the past, Barcelona engaged the services of an external technical consultant who provided, using video, technical reports relating to players in the lower divisions of the Spanish state and the club’s technical secretariat.

In addition, the relationship with the same external supplier was extended with technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to provide additional information for the technical staff of the first team and the subsidiary team, a common practice in professional football clubs.

Currently, this type of external collaboration is associated with a professional in the field of football.

Barcelona regrets that this information appears at the given time, at the best point of the season.

Barcelona will take legal action against anyone who damages the club’s image with possible insinuations that are against the club’s reputation and which may arise as a result of this information.