A Spanish court has agreed to take on a case against Barcelona over allegations of corruption in sports, unfair administration, and falsehood in documents, over alleged payments made to a company owned by a senior refereeing official.
The court had agreed to take on the case, and the Spanish government and Real Madrid soccer club had joined the complaint.
The allegations were that the club had paid over 7.3 million euros to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who had allegedly favoured Barcelona in the decisions taken by referees in the games played by the club, as well as in the results of the competitions.
Negreira was the vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish Football Association from 1993 to 2018.
Barcelona denied the allegations and said that they had paid an external consultant for technical reports related to professional refereeing, which was a common practice among professional football clubs.
However, the prosecutors' complaint focused on 2.9 million euros paid from 2014 to 2018, alleging that Barcelona, with the help of former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, had reached a "confidential verbal agreement" with Negreira.
Barcelona president, Joan Laporta, stated that the club would fully cooperate with the investigation and was looking forward to confronting all the scoundrels who were tarnishing their shield.
Meanwhile, Negreira was unavailable for comment, and the case was transferred to the anti-corruption prosecutor's office due to the high-profile nature of the allegations that could constitute significant corruption offences.
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