I realized a lot of people are saying this affair is not being covered in their country so I created the:
Compilation of everything known so far of the Negreira-Barcelona case.
(Long post. Everything has a link (mainly in Spanish, sorry) to contrast it or read further on.)
Barca has secretly paid 7M€ to Enríquez Negreira, the vice-president of the Technical Referee Comitee (CTA in Spanish) for 18 year (2001-2018) during 4 different Barca boards: Gaspart, Laporta, Rosell and Bertomeu. Laporta is still the president at the moment.
Proof.
The payments stopped the moment Negreira lost his position as the refs VP. Negreira then blackmailed Barca. He threatened to uncover the irregularities he had witnessed first hand regarding the club, unless they continued the payments until the previously agreed end.
Proof.
In his official declaration to the Spanish tax agency that has been leaked
, Negreira declared that Barca paid him to make sure no refereering adverse decision was taken against Barca, so it was all neutral. He also declared there was no report or similar document to prove any service made to Barca. Link to the document.
Barca has not admitted this.
In the official declaration Barca declared the following:
-an external consultant was contracted for.
-they were provided with videos of low-category players in Spain.
-they were provided with technical videos regarding the refereering, something usual within the clubs.
-they regret this info broke at their best moment of the season.
This very declaration is already refuted as we will see below:
Barca argued they contracted an external consultant. But it is not true. When the Spanish tax agency asked about these payments they aknowledged not having any contract that justified the payments and wondered if they should say so or just play dumb.
Proof can be found here.
Barca argued they paid for video reports of referee actuations. This does not seem probable as Valverde and Tata Martino, two Barca coaches during this period of time, admitted to have never looked at any ref report during his time at Barca and not even knowing they existed.
On the last seconds of the video on this link Valverde denies the existance of such videos .
Tata Martino's staff declaration on this link.
Barca argued the info came on the worst time possible (meaning they tried to hurt the club). The info was discovered by the reporter Sique Rodríguez from the program
Que t'hi jugues from
SER Barcelona. As you can see
by his twitter account he is a Barca fan.
On this Twitter video he explains that the scandal was deliberately published on the best possible moment for the club, and that the club knows this.
Barca also argued that it is usual for teams to pay for videos that analyze the ref actuations. This is true, it is known that most of La Liga clubs do hire a
former, retired ref to make such analysis. Barca, themselves, currently pay 30.000€/year to an former ref for this service. The important part here is that they hired the ref VP while he was active, for 18 years at that. And they paid him 7M€.
Obviously no technical video on ref performance is worth that much. It is also worth remembering that Negreira himself declared that he was being paid to avoid adverse refereering against Barca.
The payments happened to "Dasnil 95 S.L." a company created by Negreira. His son (who will be important later on) was the administrator of the company. 95% of this company's income came from Barca, he barely made any money outside of them. The company was closed 2 years after Barca stopped paying them.
Proof can be found here.
A poster very smartly already pointed to this:
And so far, it looks like this is what happened
We know Negreira´s son acted as a personal coach and a psychologist for Spanish referees. Perez Burrul, an ex-referee active while Negreira was the VP of the ref comitee, has admitted that, given the competition between refs, privetaly hiring the son of the ref VP could help them in their careers. He specifically referred to being promoted or relegated to the second tier.
Proof can be found here
Thanks to Andújar Oliver, a ref of the same period, we also know that Negreira´s son would call the refs in charge of the important games that happened in Camp Nou. He would ask them at which hotel they were staying and then would take them personally to the stadium. He admits that, he being the refs VP son, he could not turn him down.
Declarations of Andújar Oliver.
Video of Negreira's son accompanying refs to Camp Nou in 2015 in a match against Atlético de Madrid.
We also learnt how on one of this trips, where Negreira´s son was with the 4 refs (referee, two assistant referees and the fourth referee) on the way to a game at Camp Nou he told them:
“You already know: here, calm down. Barcelona has a lot at stake and you can´t hesitate. You are more than prepared. You know exactly what you have to do." Proof of this
It is worth remembering that, while doing all these, Negreira´s son admits being employed as an external consultant by Barca (
as per his ver own CV available online). It is also worth remembering that he, and his father, got paid 7M€ by Barca during 18 years.
Upon hearing all this news, the current Ref Committee (CTA) has forbidden any refs to continue geting involved or form any professional relationship with the son of Negreira (
Proof of this) who, until that moment, was still accompanying refs to the Camp Nou (
Proof of this)
Now let's talk about Negreira for a bit. What was his role as the VP of the ref committee?
Jaume Roures (a Barca socio, a guarantor for the current Barca board, and the guy who paid for Barca's fourth lever (the company he created paid 100M€ for 24,5% of Barça Studios:
Proof)) has said that Negreira was the one that evaluated the performances of refs. He was the one who made the ref reports for the Technical Referee Comitee or CTA.
Proof can be found here. ((How would Roures know such a thing? Well, he is also the CEO of Mediapro, a huge company that has exclusive rights for the TV commercialisation of La Liga, etc))
Roures' declaration links up with what former referee Paradas Romero has said: "Promotions and relegations were not adjusted to the category of the referees. We were surprised by who was promoted and who was relegated. Reports were opaque and obscure" "Negreira was the one who called us".
Proof can be found here
So, Negreira and his son had influence over the refs and Barca paid them 7M€ during 18 years, but what happened to the money?
It is not known yet. We know that Negreira would withdraw thousands of euros on cash periodically (
proof can be found here) but it is not known what he did with it. His ex-wife, and mother of said son, has said that such a quantity of money never reached their household (
Declaration of the ex-wife).
Another document has been leaked recently. In this one Negreira threatened Barca once again. He asked for more money for "
so many years of relationship, so many favours rendered and so many shared confidences".
Please note, he admits to rendering favours to Barca. He also writes: "Since 2003 we have been adapting our company to the needs of FC Barcelona, hiring staff and training them for the strict needs of
the club, who has required them to work exclusively in such a way that they cannot provide services to third parties".
This has sparked questions in Spain:
If Negreira just provided reports on refs and low-category players (as Barca declared) why would they need exclusivity? Why couldn't other teams pay for such reports?
If Negreira made sure no adverse refereering happened to Barca, just pure neutrality (as Negreira argued) why would they need exclusivity? Why couldn't other clubs pay for neutrality?
Tebas initially showed his concern about the matter. He also said that there could be NO sporting consequences as any possible sporting crime would have already prescribed. He also said that the Prosecution was looking into the matter and that there might be a crime of corruption between individuals in the version of sports fixing.
Proof of Tebas statement
Later on Tebas said that Laporta should resign if he doesn't explain this affair correctly.
Proof
Lastly, Laporta made an official address to the press where he blamed Tebas. He argued Tebas has finally revealed his true nature and that he has had a phobia against Barca for a long time. He said that Tebas wanted him to resign and that he would not. He also revealed that Barca has started its own investigation on this affair and that it was externalised to assure its independence, thoroughness and excellency.
Proof can be read here
Negreira was paid monthly for 18 years, he was normally paid similar amounts, except for June (where the sporting season ends) in which he was paid twice or even thrice that amount.
Proof of this. His pay increased over the years and when Laporta was president it got quadrupled (
Proof can be found here). Let's hope his internal investigation can find out why this happened.
Meanwhile, Sevilla and Espanyol made individual statements where they expressed their concerns about the matter and asked for a full investigation.
Sevilla's comunicado oficial.
Espanyol's comunicado oficial. Later on a Delegate Commission, acting in representation of La Liga, all teams of first division (except 2) and all teams of second division, made an official statement. In this statement they express deep concern about the Negreira-Barca case and say they they will act firmly within the powers and limits allowed by the Law.
You can read the official statement in English here.
Estrada Fernandez, a current ref, has demanded Negreira (the former ref VP) for alleged sports corruption or sports fraud due to the payments the latter received for advising FC Barcelona. In the demand's contents Estrada Fernandez argues that Negreira provided arbitration advisory and follow-up services with the aim of guaranteeing arbitration favorable to the interests of FC Barcelona while he was vice president of the Arbitration Committee from 2003 to 2018.News of this demand.
Additional background information:
--If you are wondering why this affair is not bigger you might find useful to know that Barca also paid 7,2M€ to media companies such us diario
Ara, Cope, Cadena Ser, Rac1, Mundo Deportivo and
El Periódico or reporters such as Marçal Lorente.
--Jesús Gil y Gil, the owner of Atlético de Madrid at the time already said in 1993 that Barca won the league thanks to Negreira. (1993 was the year Negreira stopped being a referee and started working for the ref committee).
Proof of this declaration
--Ramón Mendoza, the president of Real Madrid at the time, already said in 1994 that there was indication of sport fraud involving Negreira (
Proof of Mendoza's declaration)
--Luis Bassat was a candidate for the Barca presidency twice, in 2000 and 2003 (the period in which the ref payments started). He failed both times.
He gave an interview that you can read in Spanish
here after losing the presidency elections against Laporta. In this interview he confesses the following:
"(I am feeling) Bad, but also liberated because [...] I have seen things that they say that I have to do that I will no longer have to deal with."
Q. What things?
A. For example, that
a very important person from the club came to me and said: "And how do you want to be president, if there are many things you don't know?" What is it that I don't know?" And he answered me: "For example, how to bribe a referee.
TL ; DR
