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Spanish radio Cadena SER said on Wednesday that
the soccer club made the payments between 2016 and 2018 to a
company of Jose Maria Enríquez Negreira, who was at the time
vice-president of a refereeing committee of the Spanish football
association.
Barcelona said in a statement it was aware of the investigation.
It said the club had "hired the services of an external
consultant" that supplied it with "technical reports related to
professional refereeing", calling it "a common practice among
professional football clubs."
It said the consultant also provided, in video format, reports
about youth players from other Spanish clubs.
However, former club president Josep Maria Bartomeu told Mundo
Deportivo sports daily later on Wednesday the payments went back
before 2003 and totalled 575,000 euros per year since the
2009/2010 season before they got stopped in 2018 as part of
cost-cutting measures.
Asked about his remarks, Barcelona offered no further comment,
referring to its original statement.
The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) said in a statement
that Enriquez Negreira has had no official role since 2018 and
that "no active referee or member of the CTA bodies can carry
out any work that is likely to enter into a conflict of
interest."
According to Spanish media reports, prosecutors launched the
probe in 2022 after a tax office inspection of a company owned
by Enriquez Negreira, found no record or services provided to
Barcelona in return for 1.4 million euros in payments.
Cadena SER quoted Enriquez Negreira as saying that his advice
was verbal and included players' interactions with referees and
that he denied ever favouring Barcelona in any refereeing
decisions or disputes.
($1 = 0.9341 euros)
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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