Global Courant
The alleged payments between Barcelona and Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira were revealed by radio station Ser Catalunya in February
Spanish police have raided the offices of the referees’ commission as part of an investigation into Barcelona’s alleged corrupt payments to an official.
Barcelona facing allegations of corruption over payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice president of the commission, in exchange for favorable referee decisions.
UEFA is also investigating the matter.
Barcelona denies any wrongdoing and no arrests were made during the Madrid search.
The Spanish Guardia Civil searched the headquarters of the Spanish Technical Commission of Referees (CTA) on Thursday.
BBC Sport has been told that the judge presiding over the case demanded documentation from the CTA. This was not sent, prompting the raid.
The first criminal investigation was launched by Barcelona’s public prosecutor’s office in March, with European football’s governing body UEFA launching its own investigation shortly afterwards.
It is claimed that Barcelona paid 8.4 million euros (£7.4 million) to Negreira and his company Dasnil 95.
The payments were initially investigated as part of a tax investigation into Negreira’s company.
Barcelona reportedly paid the company €1.4 million between 2016 and 2018, and paid Negreira around €7 million between 2001 and 2018, the year he left his role on the referees’ committee.
Barcelona acknowledged that they had paid Dasnil 95, who it described as “an external technical consultant”, to compile video reports on referees “with the aim of supplementing the information required by the coaching staff”.
They said paying for reports was “a common practice among professional clubs”.
On February 18, the 19 other La Liga clubs issued a statement expressing their “deep concern”.
In July UEFA Barcelona provisionally acquitted to play in the Champions League this season while the investigation is still ongoing.
