12 pages occupies the criticism that the Provincial Prosecutor of Barcelona has offered earlier than the Court No. 1 of Barcelona towards the previous vp of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, and several other leaders of the Barcelona Football Club, together with its former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.
The plot already has a reputation, the Negreira Case, and this Tuesday it has handed into the fingers of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which might be in command of investigating these managers and two different former managers of the membership, Albert Soler and Óscar Grau, along with the membership itself.
What is being investigated is the membership’s funds to Negreira, which might have began within the interval of Joan Gaspart as president (from 2000 to 2003). As suspected by the Prosecutor’s Office, these funds have been made in order that the previous vp of the referees favored the membership. The record of illustrious is accomplished by the witnesses that the Prosecutor’s Office desires to name and that features former coaches resembling Enrique Valverde or Luis Enrique.
Negreira, the recipient of seven.3 million euros in 17 years
José María Enríquez Negreira was vp of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) since 1994. From 2001, and till 2018, in keeping with the Prosecutor’s Office, he acquired greater than 7.3 million euros from Barça that weren’t offered for within the membership’s statutes nor accepted by its companions. “They had no authorized or statutory help,” says the Prosecutor’s Office.
Negreira invoiced a big half as “technical video recommendation” or “recording of matches and viewing of Selections”, in keeping with the 33 invoices offered by Barcelona to the Tax Agency and that solely accumulate part of the funds.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office considers that they have been funds in change for “actions tending to favor the FCB within the decision-making of the referees within the matches performed by the Club, and thus within the outcomes of the competitions”.
SPAIN FOOTBALL REFEREESEFE
As vp of the CTA, he would have influenced the “designation for every match of the official Spanish competitions of state {and professional} scope”, which is carried out in that physique, which additionally evaluates the referees themselves and is the one which promotes or descends them from class or proposes them to be candidates as worldwide referees.
When he was faraway from workplace in 2018, Barcelona stopped paying him. Then, Negreira addressed the then president of Barça, Josep María Bartomeu, in a clearly threatening tone: “I wouldn’t have the need to publicize all of the irregularities that I’ve recognized and skilled first-hand in relation to anybody from the membership, however you’ll power me to this if he doesn’t rethink his determination and complies with the settlement we needed to proceed relying on my providers till the tip of the presidential time period,” he wrote in a burofax that features the criticism from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Negreira son, indicated however not denounced
Javier Enríquez Negreira additionally seems indicated on this case. Negreira Jr. was paid as a psychologist and coach of the referees. And in keeping with the referee Pérez de Andújar “in necessary Barcelona matches in his area” he used to name the referees to “inform them which lodge he was in and advised them that he was taking them”.
Then, he spoke with the CTA in regards to the referees with whom he had labored: “the referees have given this man all his data and ideas whereas he had them in his fingers,” mentioned Pérez de Andújar.
But the Prosecutor’s Office has not included him in his criticism as a result of it has not been confirmed that he “knew and shared his father’s objective.”
Javier Enríquez NegreiraJavier Enríquez’s web site
The one who has set his sights on him is Judge Abascal, who’s investigating the diversion of funds within the Spanish Football Federation by Ángel María Villar. This Monday, the Justice of the Peace requested that every one the documentation referring to 4,400 euros that the RFEF paid Javier Enríquez Negreira be offered.
Bartomeu and Rosell and their “confidential verbal settlement”
Although the funds cowl 4 Barça presidencies, prosecutors solely denounce Josep María Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell. They pass over Joan Gaspart and Joan Laporta, whom he proposes to name as witnesses.
The doc from the Prosecutor’s Office signifies that Barcelona, ”by the presidents Bartomeu and Rosell, reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal settlement with the denounced Negreira” in order that he would favor the membership from the vice-presidency of the TAC.
Bartomeu Rosell Europa Press
According to sources associated to the workforce, the 2 former presidents guarantee that they paid “in self-defense” to compensate for the “favors” that their everlasting rival, Real Madrid, acquired from the arbitration world.
They each know what it is wish to be detained. Bartomeu spent an evening in jail for alleged funds to an organization employed to enhance his picture and paid for with membership funds. Rosell, for his half, spent virtually two years in provisional jail. A couple of days after his launch from jail, his case was filed. He had been accused of prison group and cash laundering in what he known as one other “montage” by Villarejo.
Grau and Soler, Bartomeu’s “reliable males”
As for Andreu Soler and Oscar Grau, the prosecutor locations them as individuals of the “most confidence” of former President Bartomeu. From that place, which gave them organizational and management powers throughout the workforce, they acted “within the data of the quantities that have been invoiced yearly from January 2011 to June 2018 by the 2 firms” from Negreira.
According to the prosecutor, each managers and Bartomeu have been the “solely individuals who knew in regards to the framework” and actually, “prevented in any respect prices” that Negreira’s son was employed immediately by the membership in order that the surname wouldn’t be associated to Barcelona.
Why Gaspart and Laporta are neglected
Among the dozen witnesses that the prosecutor proposes to name when the courts proceed with the criticism, are Joan Gaspart and Joan Laporta, who now returns to preside over the membership and protests towards the criticism by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Joan GaspartEuropa Press
The Prosecutor’s Office has not even bothered to denounce them, as a result of their funds are past the attain of Justice. In each circumstances, the crime of unfair administration could be prescribed as a result of greater than 4 years have handed because it was allegedly dedicated. As for the opposite crime, corruption between people, it didn’t exist till 2010.
Joan LaportaEuropa Press
Gaspart was president between 2000 and 2003 and Laporta from 2003 to 2010, so if the courtroom helps the Prosecutor’s request, they are going to be known as as witnesses.
The different witnesses: from Luis Enrique to the son of Negreira
The parade of witnesses, revealed in its entirety by La Vanguardia, is certain to generate lots of consideration. In addition to a president and a former president of Barcelona, the Prosecutor’s Office desires two coaches to be cited: Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde.
Ernesto Valverde Europa Press
The Public Ministry desires them to elucidate in the event that they noticed the movies for which the vp of the referees allegedly charged. Valverde, for the second, assures that he by no means “watched” these movies, though he made a tacit acknowledgment of their existence.
Luis Enrique Europa Press
Carles Tusquets, who chaired the supervisor who took over the reins of the membership after Bartomeu’s departure, might additionally need to testify, however who could be cited as a former treasurer, to speak about what he knew in regards to the funds.
Another title on the record is Pep Segura, Barcelona’s technical secretary and basic supervisor since 2017. In precept, he needed to validate the funds, so the Prosecutor’s Office is focused on him.
The prosecutor desires Pere Lluis Mellado, director of the authorized space from 2004 to 2010 and who’s once more, to testify.
As for Negreira’s son, he’s free of being denounced, however not from the main focus of the Barcelona prosecutor who proposes him as a witness.
Why is the case referred to Anti-Corruption?
Because it’s about, says the General Prosecutor’s Office, “crimes associated to corruption of particular significance”, particularly: corruption between people; continued unfair administration; and falsity in industrial paperwork, though not all have an effect on everybody.
To Negreira, Bartomeu, Grau and Soler, the prosecutor asks to impute the three crimes and take into account them continued; He solely accuses Sandro Rosell and the Fúbol Club Barcelona of steady corruption between people within the sports activities area.