Barcelona under investigation again for paying €1.4 million to referee association amidst Europa clash
The investigation brings back the memories of the Calciopoli but its worse than what the fans fear
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La Liga giants Barcelona are reportedly being investigated for paying €1.4 million to a referee association. The club revealed on Wednesday that they are indeed under investigation for the allegations reported by Spanish news outlet Cadena SER.
The agency said earlier on the day that a local prosecutor’s office is looking into the finances of DASNIL 95 SL. Interestingly, the company is owned by José María Enríquez Negreira. Negreira is a former Spanish match official and was the VP of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) between 1994 and 2018.
The payment in question started sometime in 2016 and stopped after three instalments in 2018. The total amount paid by the club to the company was €1,392,680. After the publication of the news, Barcelona has also put out a five-point clarification that agreed to the accusations.
Negreira has denied any accusation of offering favorable decisions to the club during matches. According to him, the payment was to help the players understand the rules and also groom them on how to behave properly with the officials.
Club statement
The club has also echoed the same in their communique. The club said, ” (that) in the past FC Barcelona hired the services of an external consultant that supplied the club’s technical secretaries with reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain.”
Claiming that this form of payment is a common occurrence among top-flight clubs, the Catalan giants said, “the relationship with that supplier extended to technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to complement the information requested by the first and second team coaching staff.”
The club also implied that this is an additional role of the referee associations in the modern era. “These kinds of outsourced services are now the duty of a professional who works for the Football Department,” added the club.
In the fourth point of the statement, the club apologised to the fans for the knowledge of the investigation. It said, “FC Barcelona is sorry that this information has been released precisely when the team has hit its best form of the season.”
The Catalan giants also issued a formal warning against entities who will try to harm the club’s image. It said in the final point, “FC Barcelona shall be taking legal actions against those who are trying to tarnish the club’s image with possible insinuations against its good reputation that could be caused by the release of such information”
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Barca-gate revisited
While this investigation itself brings back the clouds of Juventus’ Calciopoli scandal, the investigators might stack it up with the existing Barcelona-gate.
Earlier in 2021, former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and two other top officials were arrested by the police. They had allegedly paid I3 Ventures to portray the then-president in a positive light ahead of the elections. The Bartomeu administration was under intense fire for multiple under-the-hand transactions. The Neymar-saga was also a part of the same administration.
Under the current financial predicament, this new investigation will add to the confusion around the club. Barcelona will face Manchester United in the home leg of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
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Arpan Ghosh
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