In a recent turn of events, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira’s environment has revealed that several teams apart from Barcelona from the first and the second tier paid money to the former vice-president of Spain’s referees’ committee, reports El Mundo.
Quite recently, El Confidential (h/t MARCA) made a revelation that Negreira used up to €550k to pay off third parties. For now, the officials have not traced the whereabouts of that money or to whom it was paid. But the outlet did mention that he withdrew cash up to €150,000 in one year for that particular reason.
Now, more information has seemingly come to light regarding Negreira, with reports claiming that he had been pocketing payments from more clubs other than Barcelona.
The corruption scandal involving Enriquez Negreira has rocked FC Barcelona to the core. The recent development regarding the incident is the fact that two former coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde have been asked to testify in the proceedings.
Barcelona have been charged with corruption after having said to pay over €7.3 million between 2001 and 2018 to the firms owned by Negreira.
Prosecutors accuse Barcelona and Negreira that in exchange for money, the latter favoured the Blaugrana “in the decisions taken by referees in the games played by the club, as well as in the results of the competitions.”
As a result of this, although the current board of the team states the allegations are “nothing more than an absolutely preliminary investigative hypothesis”, the prosecutor’s office has charged Barcelona and two former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu over the scandal.
For now, Barcelona continue to take a hit from all corners. Quite recently, La Liga president Javier Tebar took a dig at the team, saying that several days have passed since the incident first came to light and Barcelona still have not come up with an explanation.
In that regard, Barcelona are soon expected to hold a press conference and until then, the club’s legal team is working on gathering every piece of evidence they could find to provide clarification on the payments that the club made to Negreira.
Amidst all this, fans of fellow La Liga rivals have only made things worse for the team. In Sevilla’s recent home game against Almeria, fake Euro notes with Joan Laporta’s face were thrown at the pitch.
Similarly, Barcelona’s recent 1-0 win over Athletic Club was overshadowed by a similar incident where the home fans threw “Mafia$” notes onto the pitch.
With new information about other teams paying off Negreira coming to light, it seems only fair that the investigation is carried out further and those clubs also are subjected to the same treatment as Barcelona.