Barcelona to go Court on Charges of Continuous Corruption by Spanish Justice
Spanish Justice department is preparing to submit a formal complaint against Barcelona over the Negreira Case, and the club would be looking to defend itself in the court.
Barcelona continuous corruption to referees association
It was revealed during a tax investigation that the Catalan club was paying Dasnil 95 named company a total amount of €6.7m from 2001 to 2017. The former Vice President of the Referees committee, Enriquez Negreira had owned the company.
Suspiciously, the company only included two employees, namely Negreira and his son. According to the reports, those payments were to scout reports and reports on the referee.
The reports suggest that the there is no sufficient evidence with the prosecutor’s office to validate or substantiate those claims and hence they would be submitting charges of “continuous corruption” against the whole club and its former President Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Spanish judge to take Barcelona to court for corruption
However, the other presidents during the time would not be getting directly implicated, including the current club president, Joan Laporta. This is because of the statute of limitations of five years on charges.
Despite these, the other presidents including the current president could become explicitly involved in case Barcelona as an entity of whole are charged, which remains to be decided by the judge, whether the case has enough ground to be accepted or not.
It remains unclear what kind of punishment might be brought upon Barcelona. La Liga have seemed to rule out relegation or any points punishments because of the time-limit nature of punishments. UEFA and FIFA, on the contrary, are reportedly monitoring the issue very closely and are ready to implicate any sort of punishment on the Blaugranas.
La Liga, UEFA, FIFA consider punishment for Barcelona for corruption
Current club President Laporta had earlier spoken at an event and has denied in his statements that his club had ever brought or even tried to buy any referees at any point, and has also claimed that the facts would eventually out the truth.
Laporta also stated that the club is intending to hold a press conference in the upcoming days to explain the situation to the public.
