Barcelona commented on the Spanish prosecutor’s office’s fraud charges against the Catalan club. Words of the press service representative spor.es.
“The prosecutor’s conclusion is nothing more than an absolute preliminary investigation hypothesis, which must either be confirmed or rejected after a genuine judicial investigation. Our club will assist the investigation in any matter the authorities need.
Barcelona reiterates that it does not bribe any referee or try to influence their decision in any way.”
Let me remind you, earlier there was information about the investigation into the payments made by the Catalan club to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the referees technical committee of the Spanish Football Federation.
The Ciudad Condal prosecutor’s office conducted an investigation and found that the Catalans paid a total of approximately 1.4 million euros to the company owned by Negreira. In 2016, the transfer amount amounted to 532 thousand euros, in 2017 – 541 thousand euros and in 2018 – 318 thousand euros.
The former employee of the Federation and his son have already testified. Negreira stated that the money transferred to him was related to his work as a consultant and clarification of the rules and in no way helped Barcelona gain more appreciation from the referees. However, he failed to provide any evidence of consulting cooperation with the club.
Previously reportedBarcelona could face relegation or liquidation if found guilty in the referee trial.