Javier Tebas, president of the Professional Football League, said at an event organized by La Vanguardia this Thursday that he doubts that Barcelona have bought the referees. “I don’t think Barcelona bought referees. Neither he nor anyone else. But there are payments to Negreira for 20 years,” he said. “Let’s imagine that the facts weren’t dictated by sport. There’s a feeling of wanting to influence,” he added. “What would the institutions have to do do in such a case? Of course not nothing. I’m not saying that they bought referees, but they paid the Vice President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). It would be serious behavior in sport. In European competitions there is no prescription . UEFA can intervene in national affairs as long as your domestic competition cannot fight a crime.”
Theben also described the damage to the reputation of Barça and the league as a result of the Negreira case as “brutal”. “We have the greatest institutional crisis in league history” abounded. “It’s a very uncomfortable situation. Barça is one of the most important clubs in the league, but hiding is not the solution,” he has made an impact. “It’s going to be a very bad media parade for the league and Barça,” concluded the league’s president, speaking at the forum organized by La Vanguardia in defense of the European football ecosystem.
However, Barça’s payments to Negreira were not continued, as Mundo Deportivo revealed after examining the Football Leaks papers on the case. Prosecutors believe the Barcelona payments could have constituted a continuous crime of corruption between individuals between 2001 and 2008, but the documentary, cited by the Catalan sports daily, claims that has not been the case since it was released during Joan Gaspart’s presidency in the year 2001 began. Payments would have been suspended in 2002 and resumed in 2005 in the tenure of Joan Laporta and continued in the presidencies of Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu until 2018.
Follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.