Joan Laporta (I), President of FC Barcelona, together with Florentino Pérez (C), President of Real Madrid, and Jordi Rures, President of MediaPro (right)
He real Madrid broke his silence for the first time since the scandal around the case erupted Enriques Negreiraformer vice-president of the Technical Committee of the Referees (CTA) who would reach an agreement with FC Barcelona for many years to support the club “in refereeing decisions”.
“Given the seriousness of the allegations made by the Barcelona Public Prosecutor against FC Barcelona and its two presidents of reasonable suspicion of corruption, as well as their connection with anyone, Vice President of the Technical Committee of the Referees, José María Henriques Negreira, the President has urgently convened the Board of Directors tomorrow , on Sunday 12 March 2023 at 12:00 pm, to decide on the action Real Madrid deems appropriate in relation to this matter,” reads a statement released by Real Madrid.
Real Madrid’s strategy for the big controversy that is embarrassing Spanish football has been prudent so far. The closest thing to a reaction came from Emilio Butragueño, director of institutional relations at Real Madrid, in one of his halftime speeches for the Merengue team, where the former white striker limited himself to commenting that “at Real Madrid we have to respect the times justice and now have to wait for an investigation by the prosecutor’s office to establish what happened.
as noted Vulture, all of La Castellana began to react after the prosecutor’s office condemned FC Barcelona and that the trial had moved forward. With this decision, a scenario that has so far been resisted opens up, as despite the extreme sporting rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona, relations between the clubs are at their best.
Ties between the merengue and culé leaders are stronger than ever due to their shared interests in the Super League and their rejection of Javier Tebas at the helm of La Liga; nevertheless, the challenge Florentino Perez the board of directors could be the beginning of the end of this truce, as Real Madrid’s backing of all open cases is another stone in the backpack Joan Laporta who sees his future at the helm of Barcelona getting harder by the day.
Complaint against FC Barcelona
In a document submitted to the Court of Investigation No. 1 of Barcelona, with advice IndependentThe public prosecutor claims that “through the presidents of the ARF and JMBF [en referencia a Rosell y Bartomeu] The FCB has reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with the accused JMEN [Negreira]so that, as Vice President of the CTA and for money, he can take actions aimed at supporting the FCB in making refereeing decisions in matches played by the Club, and thus in the results of the competition; referees whose appointment for each match of official Spanish national and professional competitions is carried out within the framework of the CTA, a body responsible, in addition, for the scores in which the defendant participated, for the promotion and demotion of referees. , as well as the proposal of candidates for international arbitrators”.
The complaint is directed against the club’s former president, Josep María Bartomeu, despite the fact that he was the one who stopped payments to Negreira, as alleged verbal reports of “tips” circulated from 2001 to 2018, when he was in charge of the club. . The surprise as to what might have leaked out was that the public ministry also directed its actions against former president Sandro Rosell, despite the fact that there are doubts that the alleged crimes committed during the period when he was in front of the club , prescribed .
The complaint was finally filed in relation to the alleged crimes of individual corruption in sports, maladministration and lying. It also targets Negreira and former club directors Oscar Grau and Albert Soler.
Prosecutors estimate the amounts Negreira recovered from Barça between 2001 and 2018 at more than seven million: “Payments made by the FCB to the accused JMEN from 2001 to 2018 during his vice presidency of the CTA exceeded 7.3 million euros according to the data for the history of amounts issued annually by organizations D 95 SL and N SCP.
Source: El Independiente