This Wednesday marks exactly one month since SER Catalunya disclosed that Fútbol Club Barcelona paid at least 1.4 million euros to José María Enríquez Negreira, who at the time served as Vice President of Technical Referees.
In the ensuing Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office investigation, it was established that the long-time head of referee administration, associated with Barça for 17 years, faced a fine of 7.3 million euros.
The sanction spanned the terms of four Barça presidents from 2001 to 2018: Joan Gaspart (2000–2003), Joan Laporta (2003–2010), Sandro Rosell (2010–2014), and Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014–2018, when he terminated ties with Enríquez).
Laporta has asserted that Barça commissioned an external, independent, and meticulous investigation into the matter. The results have not been released publicly yet.
1. Who signed the initial contract with Enríquez Negreira on behalf of Barcelona?
The responsible party remains unidentified. Early documents indicate the contract originated with Gaspart’s era (around 2001), while other records suggest Núñez’s involvement in the late 1990s. The club has withheld specific details a month after the scandal emerged. The first president who formed the link between Barça and the arbitration body has not disclosed the identity of the contract’s intellectual author.
The club has not provided concrete clarification on this point. The question of who drafted the initial agreement remains unanswered, leaving the true author of the contract unknown.
2. Why did no Barça president sever the financial ties with the then vice president of the Technical Arbitration Board?
Gaspart claimed he was unaware of the payments. Laporta contended that compensation was based on assessments. Cadena SER has reported that in one early board meeting, the then-vice president of sports (2003–2005) stated, “If we want them to continue to respect us, we must keep paying.”
Public commentary from later years has been sparse. Rosell has remained quiet, and Bartomeu later disclosed that Laporta quadrupled Enríquez’s bill, arguing that he was the one who “turned the tap off.” No official explanation has been offered for why the contract was not terminated earlier.
3. What did Enríquez Negreira actually provide for Barça?
Barça’s official stance, issued in February, indicated that the club previously hired an external technical adviser who furnished video reports about players in national subcategories and that the relationship with the provider was extended to deliver technical reports on professional arbitration to assist the first team and its subsidiaries. The club framed this as standard practice in professional football.
Barça has not named Enríquez Negreira or his son in connection with the matter, and the available documents describe videos and reports produced by external providers. The precise contents of these reports have never been fully clarified, and their purpose appears broader than simply informing the A team’s coaching staff, with some personnel reportedly not reviewing the documents.
4. Who knew about the payments to Enríquez Negreira and his son?
The club has yet to offer a clear answer. It is understood that only a small circle within Barça was aware of the agreement, reflecting a high level of secrecy around the arrangement.
The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office has summoned senior executives from the Bartomeu era, including the club’s chief executive and the director of professional sports, indicating that knowledge of the payments was limited to a select group of top leaders. Payments reportedly exceeded internal controls and were not reflected in economic reports or annual audits, leaving the total cost of the 17-year relationship undetermined.
5. Who set the price, and why did it rise?
The so-called Enríquez rate climbed over time to 7.3 million euros. Four or more presidents presided over this period, and it remained unresolved who approved the initial amount or what caused the subsequent increases. Laporta later describing a quadrupling of the bill has added to the mystery, and no public record explains who authorized the early price.
Barça has not released the total cost of the association with Enríquez. Details on season-to-season payments for videos and reports produced by the subsidiaries and associated companies, including Dasnil 95, Nisdal, and the son Javier Enríquez’s Soccercam SL, have not been disclosed.
This Wednesday marks one month since SER Catalunya’s disclosure that Barça paid at least 1.4 million euros to José María Enríquez Negreira, who served as Vice President of Technical Referees.
Further inquiries from the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office in the weeks that followed established that the long-time referee administrator faced a 7.3 million euro penalty, a sum that covered the terms of four Barça presidents from 2001 to 2018, including Gaspart, Laporta, Rosell, and Bartomeu, who cut ties with Enríquez in later years. The club asserts an external, independent, and meticulous review was initiated, though results remain unpublished as of today.