Spanish prosecutors have officially charged Barcelona with paying bribes to former vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
Barca allegedly paid more than €7.3 million between 2001 and 2018 for Negreira to prefer Barcelona “in the decisions taken by the referee in every match played by the club, as well as the results of the competition.
The Barcelona public prosecutor’s office stated that FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a confidential, unwritten agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
As the vice-president of the Technical Arbitral Committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the committee agrees to make the decisions for the benefit of FC Barcelona by the referees.
The current president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, recently made a statement claiming that Barcelona has paid no funds to the referee committee. After the investigation in 2018, the reports claimed that the Catalan side paid nearly 6.5 million euros ($6.9 million) between 2001 and 2018 to Enriquez Negreira’s company.
Barcelona is facing strong criticism from Chelsea supporters for what happened in the 2008–09 Champions League semifinals after the prosecutor’s office chose to file a lawsuit against the team.
Chelsea yelled for four penalties during the game, but the referee turned them all down. The Chelsea star player Didier Drogba was fouled by Barca defenders, and Gerard Pique clearly handballed the ball, but the referee did not call a foul.
In a number of cases, biased referee judgements were made, as in the case of Suarez’s diving in the UCL encounter against PSG. The Catalans were behind 4-0 or more in the second-leg encounter. Suarez dove and the referee gave Barcelona a penalty that Messi converted.
Ronaldo scored a ferocious goal to give Madrid the lead in the 2018 Supercup at Camp Nou when he entered the field in the 60th minute of play and poured fury on the Catalans.
Samuel Umititi tried to foul Ronaldo as he was racing for the goal. Ronaldo was given a red card by the referee, who chose to send him out rather than award Madrid a penalty.
The corruption caused by Barcelona also stains Messi’s decorated career as football fans believe that Barcelona always backed Messi, and Ronaldo was criticised for his success.
The world cup winner Argentina was also accused of biased referee decisions as they were given unjustified penalties.
The future of Barcelona is in danger as the Catalan side can face exclusion due to the referee payment scandal.
