Official: FC Barcelona charged with Corruption over payments to former referees chief | UEFA open investigation

[FreckBarca]

Wtf

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

 

[Strelok]

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

This is fecking insane tbh. Mes que un club my arse bunch of cheating cnuts.

 

[CampNou]

Care to share your stats ? I dont think anyone is trying to say Real has been a clean team, they have an especially weird history that is mangled up with politics in the past. Big teams get super friendly treatment in all leagues - it just feels like the whole Catalan empire though the past 2 decades is built on horseshit.

I’m specifically interested in the cards and penalties statistics; the ones i found, suggest both teams have similar penalties awarded (Madrid 5 or 6 more) but Barcelona conceded significantly less. The conversion rate doesnt matter in that respect (Barcelona is trailing here). Also the fact that it’s been 2 years since a penalty was awarded against them is weird at best.

I couldn't find a source with the updated data, but up to 2020:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/deport...ga-real-madrid-atletico-madrid-barcelona.html
In pens:

1. Real Madrid: +248
2. Atlético de Madrid: +163
3. Barcelona: +160

Barca has a worse ratio in pens than Atletico (and Atletico has been almost a decade in 2nd division) in the history of LaLiga.

The difference has increased. For example this year Real Madrid enjoyed 10 pens, Barca 2.

About red cards:
https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futb...r-y-menos-rojas-desde-que-existe-la-liga.html
Barca has had more red cards than Real.
I don't see the rivals count of red cards in that article, I read it somewhere but I don't remember where. Real enjoyed more opponents red cards than Barca.

I could explain why that simple number is just pathetic as a "proof" of anything. It is laughable for anyone who works (or know) something about statistics and how a proper study should be done. It would be a long post.

Some interesting news coming from this article:

The Spanish FA (RFEF), directed by Rubiales, knew since June 2022 that the Prosecutor's Office was investigating the former VP of the Refs, Negreira.

Nine months before the case shook public opinion, the RFEF received a request for information from the Public Ministry about the former ref VP.

The Prosecutor's Office wanted to know whether Negreira was allowed to be paid at the same time from a club subject to its own discipline while holding the position of 'number two' of the referee committee (that depends of the RFEF).

The Spanish FA, directed by Rubiales, replied that there was no incompatibility by reason of his position.

-------------------------
My comment: you may ask yourself how is it possible that the president of the FA sees no incompatibility in Barca paying the ref VP??

Well, it is easy. Some months ago it was revealed that he himself was involved in similarly shady deals. He also argued that there was no incompatibility then.

Rubiales, president of the Spanish FA was in cahoots with Piqué while he was still a player and the captain of Barcelona. Basically both took part in the negotiations of the newest format of the Spanish Supercup that takes place in Saudi Arabia and therefore Piqué gets (and is still getting) a big cut for every edition of the tournament (6M€ each and every single year), we don't know how much Rubiales is making as a cut. Piqué resigned quietly in the middle of this season when all this surfaced and now everyone has forgotten about it. Rubiales never resigned and still holds the job. This was even covered by Barca pages: https://barcauniversal.com/gerard-p...ok-e6-million-in-saudi-arabia-super-cup-deal/

Sadly, this corrupt Rubiales who was getting rich along with Piqué while he was a player, was the fresh-blood that was supposed to change things for the better when he replaced Villar, the previous Spanish FA president and the center of the whole Villarato theory involving Barca-refs-UEFA

Man, Florentino called Rubiales after a match and Tebas literally told that VAR had changed after that call and that it was a shame.

I didn't even have an account here and I read you mentioning a list of reasons to dislike Barca. You mentioned things like Rosell (who I despise profoundly) was 2 years in jail. You forgot to tell that he was in preventive prison only to be found innocent of the charges and that it was an affair not related to Barcelona. In Spain the debate was about the abuse of preventive detention and compensations in these cases.

I love how the defense to all the investigations and evidence from barca fans is something along the lines "if Barcelona wanted to cheat they would do it in a different way where they wouldn't be caugh". That's the most cynical approach and when you take in consideration all the recent issues with their levers, issues to adjust to spanish league regulations, the bullying into players to take payctus, etc. they still act if their leaders where the pinnacle of ethics and justice and would do all that stuff but not pay to influence the refereeing.

I don't know who you are talking about, I don't see many Barca posters in the last few pages, and I don't recall anyone using that "card" as an "only card". It doesn't make sense to me for other reasons. I haven't seen a single Barca poster hear taking about the leaders of the club as the pinnacle of anything. I don't, on the contrary.

I don't see the issue with the "levers". Barca just sold part of their assets to pay debt. Maybe you don't like the name, but that's all: economic situation is very bad and Barca needed to sell something. As simple as that.

Anyway, I don't think Real Madrid fans can talk very loud about the "ethics" and "justice" of their presidents. The company of Florentino Perez has been found guilty of forming a cartel with other construction companies to fix public contracts. This cartel has been ongoing for 3 decades. 3 decades stealing the citizens. This is proved and sanctioned. New penalties fees are added by the time. The company with the most penalty fees in the history of Spain (yeah, among all the them, Florentino's is the one with higher penalties). This is a more serious business than football. I'm not even going to talk about other shady situations surrounding Florentino.

This is why Barcelona fans should stop hanging onto every word this man says. He is a lying slimey cnut. He should be forced from his position and banned from football. There’s so much overwhelming evidence that they benefitted from the referees and not just by a little bit, penalties, red cards.. anyone still denying anything wrong is deluded.

I agree with Tebas that they probably didn’t bribe the referees, they didn’t need to, they just kept them sweet. It’s the modern day equivalent of slipping cash into someone’s pocket, smiling at them as they tap their shoulder and walk off. No words are needed.

Laporta needs to be kicked out of football. Simple.

There are dozens of referees harmed if all is true. Many of them are retired or in low level leagues. They have nothing to lose. They should be very angry.
They should be very inclined to talk about this "atmosphere".
And I will go further, many referees are Real Madrid fans. Yes, they are people and they like football. They can still do the job (we all have personal preferences and we can be professional).
Why nobody told anything?

And I recall that I don't discard any scenario (on the contrary of most of the board), I'm open to any outcome. However, people here just made their mind and that's it.

This is fecking insane tbh. Mes que un club my arse bunch of cheating cnuts.

I know nobody cares here, but...

It is hilarious... indeed.

The referee was very bad, but he was far from being the reason of Barca's win.
That was a 6-0 match (that is probably why you don't see the score in the video).

- The Pique's "penalty" looks more like pectoral in better quality videos. Angle doesn't help. There is a repetition from behind but it is also not ideal. It seems like pectoral or pectoral deflection + arm later on.
- There is an offside goal (Iniestas pass to Suarez). Probably around 1 meter, so it was a clear offside. Very bad decision. That was the 2-0. Important goal, but not the opening goal.
- The penalty from the handball is blatant. Period. You can see it in a proper match recap. You won't find many handballs as clear as that (3-0).
- The 1st pen to Neymar I think it is clear too when you see it from different angles. The defender does not try to play the ball or protect it, he just pushes Neymar to the ground because Neymar was getting to the ball sooner than him. (4-0)
- The 2nd pen to Neymar is a joke. Nothing else to say (5-0 in the 86th minute).

So yeah, very bad referee. Very very bad. One offside goal (2-0) and a non existent penalty (5-0). Very far from being determinant but those were clear mistakes. No need to deny it. Aside from that, Barca dominated completely the match and had 5 times the chances Sporting had. +20 shots to 5.

I would post the videos but I can't. Anyway they are easy to find in LaLiga channel.
Barcelona 6-0 Sporting. Season 2015-2016. They even have a video for Piques "pen" from different angles and even slow motion. Title is "Polémica: Doble ocasión del Sporting que saca Piqué bajopalos, reclaman mano" in case you are interested.

 

[Mr.Fantastic]

I couldn't find a source with the updated data, but up to 2020:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/deport...ga-real-madrid-atletico-madrid-barcelona.html
In pens:

1. Real Madrid: +248
2. Atlético de Madrid: +163
3. Barcelona: +160

Barca has a worse ratio in pens than Atletico (and Atletico has been almost a decade in 2nd division) in the history of LaLiga.

The difference has increased. For example this year Real Madrid enjoyed 10 pens, Barca 2.

About red cards:
https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futb...r-y-menos-rojas-desde-que-existe-la-liga.html
Barca has had more red cards than Real.
I don't see the rivals count of red cards in that article, I read it somewhere but I don't remember where. Real enjoyed more opponents red cards than Barca.

I could explain why that simple number is just pathetic as a "proof" of anything. It is laughable for anyone who works (or know) something about statistics and how a proper study should be done. It would be a long post.

Now do the actual relevant time period.

There are dozens of referees harmed if all is true. Many of them are retired or in low level leagues. They have nothing to lose. They should be very angry.
They should be very inclined to talk about this "atmosphere".
And I will go further, many referees are Real Madrid fans. Yes, they are people and they like football. They can still do the job (we all have personal preferences and we can be professional).
Why nobody told anything?

And I recall that I don't discard any scenario (on the contrary of most of the board), I'm open to any outcome. However, people here just made their mind and that's it.

Don`t you worry. They will sing like canaries at court.

 

[CampNou]

Now do the actual relevant time period.

Don`t you worry. They will sing like canaries at court.

What is "relevant" and why?
If the "saldo arbitral" is a "definitive proof" of "bribing" (spoiler, it isn't), we can see that numbers are extremely weird in favour of Real Madrid through the history.
The "relevant" period that the "futbolgate" creators chose (spoiler, ultra fanatical madridistas) is not even in line with Negreira payments.

I'm not worried. Why would I be? I have nothing to do with the club or the people who might committed a crime. If they did something wrong (which they did by the way, what exactly is what needs to be investigated), they will need to pay for it, not me. So I'm very, very, very calmed.

Now tell me, what if nobody "sing like canaries"? I have said many times that I do not discard anything, but many here (probably you too) have ZERO doubts. Just imagine, how would you take it?

 

[NLunited]

Can someone do a proper analysis of red cards and penalties for the relevant periods?

 

[Ekkie Thump]

What is "relevant"

Well, obviously 2001-2018 is relevant.

and why?

Because that's the period during which you were paying the vice president of your refereeing organisation hundreds of thousands of Euros a year.

 

[Member 125398]

What is "relevant" and why?
If the "saldo arbitral" is a "definitive proof" of "bribing" (spoiler, it isn't), we can see that numbers are extremely weird in favour of Real Madrid through the history.
The "relevant" period that the "futbolgate" creators chose (spoiler, ultra fanatical madridistas) is not even in line with Negreira payments.

I'm not worried. Why would I be? I have nothing to do with the club or the people who might committed a crime. If they did something wrong (which they did by the way, what exactly is what needs to be investigated), they will need to pay for it, not me. So I'm very, very, very calmed.

Now tell me, what if nobody "sing like canaries"? I have said many times that I do not discard anything, but many here (probably you too) have ZERO doubts. Just imagine, how would you take it?

I wasn't there on the night of the murder because, as you can see, I'm home most nights.

 

[King Kendrick]

Well, obviously 2001-2018 is relevant.



Because that's the period during which you were paying the vice president of your refereeing organisation hundreds of thousands of Euros a year.

I just can’t stop laughing at this post thank you, needed it. (100% in agreement if not clear)

 

[Messier1994]

I couldn't find a source with the updated data, but up to 2020:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/deport...ga-real-madrid-atletico-madrid-barcelona.html
In pens:

1. Real Madrid: +248
2. Atlético de Madrid: +163
3. Barcelona: +160

Barca has a worse ratio in pens than Atletico (and Atletico has been almost a decade in 2nd division) in the history of LaLiga.

The difference has increased. For example this year Real Madrid enjoyed 10 pens, Barca 2.

About red cards:
https://www.mundodeportivo.com/futb...r-y-menos-rojas-desde-que-existe-la-liga.html
Barca has had more red cards than Real.
I don't see the rivals count of red cards in that article, I read it somewhere but I don't remember where. Real enjoyed more opponents red cards than Barca.

I could explain why that simple number is just pathetic as a "proof" of anything. It is laughable for anyone who works (or know) something about statistics and how a proper study should be done. It would be a long post.




Man, Florentino called Rubiales after a match and Tebas literally told that VAR had changed after that call and that it was a shame.

I didn't even have an account here and I read you mentioning a list of reasons to dislike Barca. You mentioned things like Rosell (who I despise profoundly) was 2 years in jail. You forgot to tell that he was in preventive prison only to be found innocent of the charges and that it was an affair not related to Barcelona. In Spain the debate was about the abuse of preventive detention and compensations in these cases.



I don't know who you are talking about, I don't see many Barca posters in the last few pages, and I don't recall anyone using that "card" as an "only card". It doesn't make sense to me for other reasons. I haven't seen a single Barca poster hear taking about the leaders of the club as the pinnacle of anything. I don't, on the contrary.

I don't see the issue with the "levers". Barca just sold part of their assets to pay debt. Maybe you don't like the name, but that's all: economic situation is very bad and Barca needed to sell something. As simple as that.

Anyway, I don't think Real Madrid fans can talk very loud about the "ethics" and "justice" of their presidents. The company of Florentino Perez has been found guilty of forming a cartel with other construction companies to fix public contracts. This cartel has been ongoing for 3 decades. 3 decades stealing the citizens. This is proved and sanctioned. New penalties fees are added by the time. The company with the most penalty fees in the history of Spain (yeah, among all the them, Florentino's is the one with higher penalties). This is a more serious business than football. I'm not even going to talk about other shady situations surrounding Florentino.



There are dozens of referees harmed if all is true. Many of them are retired or in low level leagues. They have nothing to lose. They should be very angry.
They should be very inclined to talk about this "atmosphere".
And I will go further, many referees are Real Madrid fans. Yes, they are people and they like football. They can still do the job (we all have personal preferences and we can be professional).
Why nobody told anything?

And I recall that I don't discard any scenario (on the contrary of most of the board), I'm open to any outcome. However, people here just made their mind and that's it.

I know nobody cares here, but...

Those compilations can always be twisted anyway you want and the same with stats.

I have no personal preference in La Liga (I absolute am not a fan of Real Madrid), but for me I just can’t understand why for example fans of Barca haven’t tossed Laporta with pitchforks?

Like how can it even be up for debate that it’s extremely unacceptable for Barca to engage Negreira in the way they have?

I keep reading stuff like ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and things like that. When has that standard — ever — been applied in the public eye? If Pedro Sanchez (Spain PM right?) was caught buying sex from a 13 y/o girl subject to trafficking — would you go ‘she looked like she was 16 so he shouldn’t be convicted of child rape’? Or if it was 11 years ago and time barred, would you go ‘what is the problem, he won’t be convicted’?

 

[Messier1994]

@CampNou

Aren’t these facts?
-Barca paid over €7,000,000 to VP of the Spanish referee body, who had formal powers to directly impact a referee’s career
-There has not been any written contract
-The payments were made through a third party, keeping a big chunk of the money, which is hard to explain in any other way than it being a way to hide the payments (the same modus was used to bribe journalists)
-The little paper trail that exist is pure nonsense, one invoice stipulates that €35k was paid to Negreira to record games from the 2014 World Cup (let’s give the old man who communicates by fax in 2018 the job to record WC games). No tapes with the games exist.
-When Negreira quit his official role, Barca stopped paying him. Negreira then blackmailed Barca, stating that he would go public with all dirt he had.
-Etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

Laporta has personally been behind and executed this arrangement and increased the payments one year with like 300%. He is the current president for Barca. Regarding the above, his only comment is that questioning Barca in relation to it only is done in a conspiracy to smear the club.

I can only put it like this, if I was a fan of Barca I would be very very ashamed of the reactions around the club right now. Not about Negreira. If Woodward paid Howard Webb — I would be furious at him, but it wouldn’t change my opinion on the club. But if 90% of all United fans, all local newspapers in Manchester, joined up to defend ridiculous excuses by Woodward — I would be ashamed.

 

[rimaldo]

barcelona have been known to pay for social media accounts in the past to push a narrative. it’s clear what’s happening here.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Barca are very lucky that La liga is more or less Barca and Real. Financial hit for La liga would be astronomical. Money from sponsors and tv money would go down from cliff if they get relegated.
Cheating bastards will survive this.

 

[Messier1994]

Barca are very lucky that La liga is more or less Barca and Real. Financial hit for La liga would be astronomical. Money from sponsors and tv money would go down from cliff if they get relegated.
Cheating bastards will survive this.

But it’s a lose/lose, can the league survive that type of lie? Imagine being a fan of a rival team.

Juve went down one year (right?), and came back stronger. I could easily see Barca going down, entering into administration to clear the debt, and then come back. Then it’s over with.

 

[FreckBarca]

But it’s a lose/lose, can the league survive that type of lie? Imagine being a fan of a rival team.

Exactly. La Liga has lost a lot of value since we found out about the payments to Negreira. For everyone but Barca fans, funnily.

Imagine finding out the ref VP was being paid by a team after paying to watch La Liga for the last 20 years.

Unless there is consequences and Barca pays in proportion to what they have done it is over for the credibility of the competition. It will almost feel like watching football WWE.

 

[CampNou]

Can someone do a proper analysis of red cards and penalties for the relevant periods?

"proper" is the keyword and... "proper" definition depends of the knowledge of the reader.
to me, a "proper" analysis would take several people working for months.
an ultrabasic analysis would require a person working full time at least a few weeks. "ultrabasic" requires to gather more information about the red cards/penalties. so at least all of them would need to be reviewed.

for "person" and "people" i mean serious data scientists, not hooligan journalists.

nobody is going to do it for free and nobody is going to pay for it.

Those compilations can always be twisted anyway you want and the same with stats.

I have no personal preference in La Liga (I absolute am not a fan of Real Madrid), but for me I just can’t understand why for example fans of Barca haven’t tossed Laporta with pitchforks?

Like how can it even be up for debate that it’s extremely unacceptable for Barca to engage Negreira in the way they have?

I keep reading stuff like ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and things like that. When has that standard — ever — been applied in the public eye? If Pedro Sanchez (Spain PM right?) was caught buying sex from a 13 y/o girl subject to trafficking — would you go ‘she looked like she was 16 so he shouldn’t be convicted of child rape’? Or if it was 11 years ago and time barred, would you go ‘what is the problem, he won’t be convicted’?

i was responding to the "saldo arbitral" message. the data from the real madrid hooligans blog that takes some random data (not even in negreira's period) and extract conclusions. it is actually a very pathetic "statistical" study, if it can be named "study" at all.

those "compilations" are constantly named as "proof", however, when the data is not as some people want, then they don't matter. aham... they put specific videos and i respond to those specific videos. simple as that.

when has it been at debate that the payments are in the best case scenario unethical and in a good scenario also criminal? however, there are degrees of crimes. it needs to be investigated, but why would i automatically buy the worst case scenario when there are multiple options and multiple degrees even inside of each crime? the reason of the existance of "proven until guilty" is precisely to avoid the herd and try to be fair. that is one of the main principles of democracy. it is not perfect but i'm not going to enter in your "example" because i find it... mmm... weird.

I wasn't there on the night of the murder because, as you can see, I'm home most nights.

the theory is that negreira didn't need to buy referees because they just knew.
if they just knew... then dozens of people over decades had to know, including just no referees but other people surrounding referees.
i could buy that some people didn't say anything based on fear of being fired or whatever for some time, but it involves many people that should have been harmed, retired people, etc. over decades. it is extremely hard to believe that nobody say anything about that "environment".
can they appear in the judicial process? sure, it just started. but nothing came out until now. we will see.

@CampNou

Aren’t these facts?
-Barca paid over €7,000,000 to VP of the Spanish referee body, who had formal powers to directly impact a referee’s career
-There has not been any written contract
-The payments were made through a third party, keeping a big chunk of the money, which is hard to explain in any other way than it being a way to hide the payments (the same modus was used to bribe journalists)
-The little paper trail that exist is pure nonsense, one invoice stipulates that €35k was paid to Negreira to record games from the 2014 World Cup (let’s give the old man who communicates by fax in 2018 the job to record WC games). No tapes with the games exist.
-When Negreira quit his official role, Barca stopped paying him. Negreira then blackmailed Barca, stating that he would go public with all dirt he had.
-Etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

Laporta has personally been behind and executed this arrangement and increased the payments one year with like 300%. He is the current president for Barca. Regarding the above, his only comment is that questioning Barca in relation to it only is done in a conspiracy to smear the club.

I can only put it like this, if I was a fan of Barca I would be very very ashamed of the reactions around the club right now. Not about Negreira. If Woodward paid Howard Webb — I would be furious at him, but it wouldn’t change my opinion on the club. But if 90% of all United fans, all local newspapers in Manchester, joined up to defend ridiculous excuses by Woodward — I would be ashamed.

- Less power than you think. Some say that "some", others that "close to zero or zero". i guess the specifics of that will be treated in the trial.
- No, afaik. There are some reports, for example in the hands of a guy from the leadership that received money.
- What do you mean by "3rd party"? if you mean a company owned by Negreira yeah. That actually makes sense for tax purposes. Journalist were paid to bash team members and against other people from the club, not to "push" the image of the club itself. Pathetic and potentially criminal.
- We don't know if more things exist. Those reports were found months ago and we didn't know until past week. His son actually worked doing videos for other teams. There will be surprises. It only proves corruption (as I said in my "theory" knowing the behaviour of the presidents and leaders of the club).
- It was the starting point of the Barca economic disaster. A lot of things were stopped at that time. It is circumstancial but I understand the concerns. Again, it has to be investigated.
- Yes, he did. Corruption and stealing from the club is dirty enough. Committing a homicide is also dirty. There are many potential dirty things. They could be trafficking with cocaine in the Camp Nou corners.

You can read my "theory" and my reasoning if you wish. I don't say it is true, it is only my current opinion of the events. If new proofs come I can change it. The rest of the people should apply the principle of prudence and not be too categorical about things they don't know.

 

[SirReginald]

Juve went down one year (right?), and came back stronger. I could easily see Barca going down, entering into administration to clear the debt, and then come back. Then it’s over with.

I would find it totally acceptable for them to clean themselves up and come back again, providing Laporta is banned from football. If they go down but he is still in charge, nothing will change.

Laporta is a snake and he needs to go, that much is certain.

 

[caid]

But it’s a lose/lose, can the league survive that type of lie? Imagine being a fan of a rival team.

Juve went down one year (right?), and came back stronger. I could easily see Barca going down, entering into administration to clear the debt, and then come back. Then it’s over with.

Its not really a lose / lose. Focusing so heavily on Real and Barcelona has hurt the league. Its even hurting Barcelona and Real at this point. Refocusing the league towards a competition between 20 teams and the league itself is overdue and a kind of obvious move forward. Trashing the league to protect this barcelona team would be spectacularly dumb.

 

[GinobiliTheGOAT]

Its not really a lose / lose. Focusing so heavily on Real and Barcelona has hurt the league. Its even hurting Barcelona and Real at this point. Refocusing the league towards a competition between 20 teams and the league itself is overdue and a kind of obvious move forward. Trashing the league to protect this barcelona team would be spectacularly dumb.

Well said

 

[adexkola]

Focusing so heavily on Real and Barcelona has hurt the league.

Corruption allegations aside, this is false.

 

[sglowrider]

Exactly. La Liga has lost a lot of value since we found out about the payments to Negreira. For everyone but Barca fans, funnily.

Imagine finding out the ref VP was being paid by a team after paying to watch La Liga for the last 20 years.

Unless there is consequences and Barca pays in proportion to what they have done it is over for the credibility of the competition. It will almost feel like watching football WWE.

Wasn't there always some suspicion before this report come out? Its just basically confirms what you guys always suspected.

Btw WWE is looking at legalising betting for their WWE 'fights'. So don't knock scripted fights! It could still be fun.

 

[kouroux]

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

Unreal

 

[Strelok]

Barca are very lucky that La liga is more or less Barca and Real. Financial hit for La liga would be astronomical. Money from sponsors and tv money would go down from cliff if they get relegated.
Cheating bastards will survive this.

Agree prime example of too big too fail here. Anyway I'd doubt many people outside of Spain or South America would watch La Liga after this. Even before this not many already I think. In my country La Liga TV rights were offered to be free couple years ago so some channels broadcasting it. The moment they wanted to charge some money those channels simply stopped. With the departs of Messi and Ronaldo things are even worse lately for them I think.

 

[CampNou]

Messier1994 you might be interested

Today we have more information about the opinion of some referees that were relegated to lower divisions in the "Negreira era"

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espa...ndidos-segunda-division-era-negreira_3594620/

Summary: Negreira had no power to decide promotions and relegations, Negreira had no power to decide the referees of the games and they never were pushed to do anything. They are sad, some say that want to know all the truth, others that Negreira was a liar trying to sell smoke... You can use Deepl. Im not going to post the entire article because it is too long.

There are many articles that explain how promotions/relegations are done.
For example: https://confilegal.com/20181025-com...e-los-arbitros-de-futbol-de-primera-division/ (this is outdated, now referees can be over 45 years old).
In summary:
- there are 45 ex referees that evaluates the referees in some areas on each match.
- at the end of the season the relegations are decided (2 out of 22 referees) based on the average grade of those reports.

Referees for each game are/were decided by 3 people:
- President of the Referees (Sanchez Arminio)
- LaLiga representant (ex referee Lopez Nieto)
- A consensus representant of the Federation and LaLiga (Puentes Leira)
https://www.libertaddigital.com/dep...-designan-los-arbitros-de-la-liga-1276538194/


"Buying the referees" is way more complex than paying this guy, who had close to 0 or 0 relevance in relegations and referee selection.

So, the ideas that come to my mind to influence referees are:
- Paying to the 45 ex referees or at least some of them. Only 2 relegations out of 22 referees. It is still very complicated to get what you want. Besides, there are limitations in the number of games of a referee with a team. Referees could see the reports (in the interview some mention that).
- Paying the Presidents of the Referees, the LaLiga representant of the consensus representant.
- Paying the referees. Risky by the obvious but also because they would get bad grades and they could be relegated.
- Just trusting that Negreira could influence in the President himself (the only option that could make some sense). Worst case scenario the impact is very limited because of his lack of direct power and the limitations in terms of number of games per team, etc.

barcelona have been known to pay for social media accounts in the past to push a narrative. it’s clear what’s happening here.

Barca (Bartomeu) paid (a lot more than the real cost, pure corruption) to bash Barca players and Barca candidates like laporta.

Talking about narrative...
There are audios of Florentino Perez telling what journalists and TV shows should disappear and who should take over. Guess what? It happened.

 

[Withnail]

Ah yes of course, nothing to see here. He had no power and took the money for nothing and Barca didn't ask him to do anything anyway

 

[Shinjch]

Messier1994 you might be interested

Today we have more information about the opinion of some referees that were relegated to lower divisions in the "Negreira era"

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espa...ndidos-segunda-division-era-negreira_3594620/

Summary: Negreira had no power to decide promotions and relegations, Negreira had no power to decide the referees of the games and they never were pushed to do anything. They are sad, some say that want to know all the truth, others that Negreira was a liar trying to sell smoke... You can use Deepl. Im not going to post the entire article because it is too long.

There are many articles that explain how promotions/relegations are done.
For example: https://confilegal.com/20181025-com...e-los-arbitros-de-futbol-de-primera-division/ (this is outdated, now referees can be over 45 years old).
In summary:
- there are 45 ex referees that evaluates the referees in some areas on each match.
- at the end of the season the relegations are decided (2 out of 22 referees) based on the average grade of those reports.

Referees for each game are/were decided by 3 people:
- President of the Referees (Sanchez Arminio)
- LaLiga representant (ex referee Lopez Nieto)
- A consensus representant of the Federation and LaLiga (Puentes Leira)
https://www.libertaddigital.com/dep...-designan-los-arbitros-de-la-liga-1276538194/


"Buying the referees" is way more complex than paying this guy, who had close to 0 or 0 relevance in relegations and referee selection.

So, the ideas that come to my mind to influence referees are:
- Paying to the 45 ex referees or at least some of them. Only 2 relegations out of 22 referees. It is still very complicated to get what you want. Besides, there are limitations in the number of games of a referee with a team. Referees could see the reports (in the interview some mention that).
- Paying the Presidents of the Referees, the LaLiga representant of the consensus representant.
- Paying the referees. Risky by the obvious but also because they would get bad grades and they could be relegated.
- Just trusting that Negreira could influence in the President himself (the only option that could make some sense). Worst case scenario the impact is very limited because of his lack of direct power and the limitations in terms of number of games per team, etc.



Barca (Bartomeu) paid (a lot more than the real cost, pure corruption) to bash Barca players and Barca candidates like laporta.

Talking about narrative...
There are audios of Florentino Perez telling what journalists and TV shows should disappear and who should take over. Guess what? It happened.

So why do you think the club were paying millions to Negreira via shell companies?

Would you be content if Madrid were doing it?

 

[WeePat]

Ah yes of course, nothing to see here. He had no power and took the money for nothing and Barca didn't ask him to do anything anyway

Yeah I mean, what's 7 million between friends innit?

 

[FreckBarca]

According to this article from yesterday referee sources said the following to the newspaper:

"There was always talk of a black hand in the Technical Referee Committee (CTA) regarding the promotions and relegations of the referees, it was the hand of Negreira. It was was the most secretive and non-transparency system ever seen on earth"

"Negreira had access to all the referees' evaluation reports and could manipulate them, deciding who was promoted and who was relegated. Therefore, he could clearly influence the promotion of the most like-minded referees"

"If he had influence in the reports, he also had power to influence the appointments of the refs after the election system went from random selection by a computer program to appointment by a group of former refs"

"The black hand of the Committee of Referees also took advantage of the reports of the refs and pass them on to the F.C. Barcelona"

"the current president of the referees, Medina Cantalejo, was appointed international by Arminio (Negreira's boss). For this reason, he will never speak ill of them since he owes him many favors, mainly going to the World Cup in Germany in 2006."

 

[Desert Eagle]

I'd love for the Spanish fans to use this as a reason to mic up the refs. What they say should be public, it's the only way to restore faith in them.

 

[R'hllor]

Funny how they think there is only direct messing around, like shady shit cant go around in a room.

 

[Oranges038]

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

That is insane.

The reaction of the opposition is clear. They know it's pure cheatery and they gave up even arguing with the ref.

Imagine being in a two team league and still needing to cheat to win it.

 

[Oly Francis]

I'd love for the Spanish fans to use this as a reason to mic up the refs. What they say should be public, it's the only way to restore faith in them.

Not sure it's a great idea to give Mateu Lahoz a microphone...

 

[BayernFan87]

The investigation itself is interesting enough but the "Damage control" of the Barca fans makes it even more entertaining.

I mean i get it, you try to protect your club and you fear what might happen, but some of your takes are just ridiculous.

 

[Messier1994]

Some news:
https://www.libertaddigital.com/dep...gra-ascensos-descensos-mano-negreira-6997840/
The arbitration sources consulted by this newspaper acted as referees under Negreira's vice-presidency and explain how the Technical Committee of Referees operated and the power of the former No. 2 of the referees: "Negreira had access to all the evaluation reports of the referees and could manipulate them, deciding who was promoted and who was demoted.Therefore , it could clearly influence the promotion of the most like-minded referees.Mainly, referees who were reaching their age were demoted with a low grade to the detriment of more promotion places. This is how the First Division referees were protected with their astronomical salaries. "In the aforementioned evaluation reports, the marks normally ranged between 6 and 8.5, in addition there was the corrective factor that was the difficulty of the match. In the case of the Second Division B referees, they could see their reports, but never those of the rest as they were not public.For the assistant referees who wanted to go up to the 2nd Division, a pre-selection of about 25-30 referees was made and the final classification was known by joining the evaluation reports and some tests carried out in Madrid that were physical and theoretical. It was a trick because they put together the reports and the tests in the general classification , instead of publishing the general classification of the reports and then the promotion course with the final grades of the course, "they add

"The black hand of the Committee of Referees also took advantage of the reports of the delegates-informers to pass them on to FC Barcelona . If it had power in the reports, it had power to influence the appointments of the referees when it went from random selection by computer to appointment by a group of former referees", they highlight.

The same arbitration sources consulted by this newspaper denounce that "the current president of the referees, Luis Medina Cantalejo , was appointed international by Victoriano Sánchez Arminio. For this reason, he will never speak ill of that presidency since he owes him many favors, mainly going to the World Cup in Germany in 2006".

 

[FreckBarca]

Ah yes of course, nothing to see here. He had no power and took the money for nothing and Barca didn't ask him to do anything anyway

Obviously nothing suspicious ever happened.

Some news:
https://www.libertaddigital.com/dep...gra-ascensos-descensos-mano-negreira-6997840/
The arbitration sources consulted by this newspaper acted as referees under Negreira's vice-presidency and explain how the Technical Committee of Referees operated and the power of the former No. 2 of the referees: "Negreira had access to all the evaluation reports of the referees and could manipulate them, deciding who was promoted and who was demoted.Therefore , it could clearly influence the promotion of the most like-minded referees.Mainly, referees who were reaching their age were demoted with a low grade to the detriment of more promotion places. This is how the First Division referees were protected with their astronomical salaries. "In the aforementioned evaluation reports, the marks normally ranged between 6 and 8.5, in addition there was the corrective factor that was the difficulty of the match. In the case of the Second Division B referees, they could see their reports, but never those of the rest as they were not public.For the assistant referees who wanted to go up to the 2nd Division, a pre-selection of about 25-30 referees was made and the final classification was known by joining the evaluation reports and some tests carried out in Madrid that were physical and theoretical. It was a trick because they put together the reports and the tests in the general classification , instead of publishing the general classification of the reports and then the promotion course with the final grades of the course, "they add

"The black hand of the Committee of Referees also took advantage of the reports of the delegates-informers to pass them on to FC Barcelona . If it had power in the reports, it had power to influence the appointments of the referees when it went from random selection by computer to appointment by a group of former referees", they highlight.

The same arbitration sources consulted by this newspaper denounce that "the current president of the referees, Luis Medina Cantalejo , was appointed international by Victoriano Sánchez Arminio. For this reason, he will never speak ill of that presidency since he owes him many favors, mainly going to the World Cup in Germany in 2006".

Just posted the same.

It is obvious that Negreira had no influence whatsoever on the refs as Barca fans say.

The same as his son. Just a month ago the current president of the refs had to forbid any refs from having a professional relationship with him, because he was still working as a coach to them, and still driving them to the Camp Nou.

 

[Messier1994]

i was responding to the "saldo arbitral" message. the data from the real madrid hooligans blog that takes some random data (not even in negreira's period) and extract conclusions. it is actually a very pathetic "statistical" study, if it can be named "study" at all.

those "compilations" are constantly named as "proof", however, when the data is not as some people want, then they don't matter. aham... they put specific videos and i respond to those specific videos. simple as that.

when has it been at debate that the payments are in the best case scenario unethical and in a good scenario also criminal? however, there are degrees of crimes. it needs to be investigated, but why would i automatically buy the worst case scenario when there are multiple options and multiple degrees even inside of each crime? the reason of the existance of "proven until guilty" is precisely to avoid the herd and try to be fair. that is one of the main principles of democracy. it is not perfect but i'm not going to enter in your "example" because i find it... mmm... weird.

This is of course true. I think its easy to put together a compilation of any team on the planet and make it look like they bought the referees. From my unscientific unbiased view, I have seen some games with Barca in them that have seen to be very biased refereed in favor of Barca over the years, but I don't directly base my views on that. Its circumstansial.

- What do you mean by "3rd party"? if you mean a company owned by Negreira yeah. That actually makes sense for tax purposes. Journalist were paid to bash team members and against other people from the club, not to "push" the image of the club itself. Pathetic and potentially criminal.

There are varying reports on the exact amounts, but it was executed like this. Negreira invoiced Barca. Negreira's invoice was not recorded in Barca's records. Barca instead paid the money to its director Josep Contreras.

Contreras was paid a commission for receiving the money, some sources reported it to be 50%, others €150,000. Contreras then just forwarded the money to Negreira (he was very handsomely compensated for just getting paid and then forwarding the money). Negreira would then on a weekly basis send a friend or a secretary to withdraw a smaller cash sum from the bank (often EUR 1,850). This modus was for example used to pay this guy, knowing for loving whisky and cigars, €35,000 to record the World Cup games in 2014 (one of few cases when there exist any kind of paper trail, with an invoice specifying recording WC games);

In addition to this, it must be pointed out that it goes without saying that a number of people at Barca -- 100% -- must have been made to 'look the other way'. Barca lends a lot of money and is of course under the obligation vs its creditors to employ top auditors and use top internal control functions. Paying anyone anything without a written agreement is not even remotely possible. The entire purpose of these arrangements are to ensure that no payment isn't traceable, that no "dark pools" of money exists that can be used illegitimately etc. This scandal could never have been exposed starting on Barca's side of things, had the Tax Authority not investigated Negreira and traced the payments from his end -- it would have remained a secret not available to any of the persons within Barca that should have been provided complete information on it (such as auditors etc). Does this "prove" anything? No, but its easily equivalent to someone getting caught by the police sitting in a parked car without a bank with a robber mask on and a sawed off shot-gun. Should that person be found guilty of planning a bank robbery? Who knows, maybe they were shooting a film. But if no camera men shows up within 30 seconds of the poolice arriving, you must start to get really suspicious.

https://en.as.com/soccer/barcagate-...ras-took-50-commission-on-referee-payments-n/
https://elpais.com/deportes/2023-03...para-no-vincular-su-apellido-con-el-club.html

 

[Dave Smith]

Barca fans, please keep up the comedy.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

In England people say it is due to "incompetency". I would say in England they don't make it that obvious. Bookies/mafias are known to be involved in football.

 

[FreckBarca]

In England people say it is due to "incompetency". I would say in England they don't make it that obvious. Bookies/mafias are known to be involved in football.

Username checks out

 

[Slevs]

The important part is in the second tweet: The ref of that game was Clos Gómez. He is currently the Head of the VAR project in Spain.

Another example of how the refs that made mistakes that were beneficial for Barca got promoted.

This one was quite beneficial as Barca won that league by only one point. This was the 35th game of a 38 game season.


In this video you can see other parts of the refereering, for example how Barca's first goal would normally be a foul to the keeper or how the Barca's second goal was offside.

What the actual feck.

How is this man still in a job in football, nevermind being promoted to the Head of VAR??