Miquel Iceta, Minister of Culture and Sports, assured this Tuesday that the Government is concerned about what is known as the Negreira Case and affirmed that “if these facts are confirmed they are very serious.”
“As a government, we are concerned about this situation, and above all, what we want is to support the position that the Spanish Football Federation has defended from the outset, maximum transparency, respect for judicial action and, if appropriate, at any time, appear at the court itself. judicial procedure if the prosecution really establishes a case that requires our action ”, José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees until 2018, said of Barcelona’s payments to a company.
Iceta made these statements to the media after signing, together with the director of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Marisol Schulz, and the president of Acción Cultural Española, José Andrés Torres Mora, the agreement that formalizes the presence of Spain as Guest Country of Honor at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2024, at the headquarters of the Ministry.
“If these facts are confirmed, they are very serious and harm the whole of Spanish football and sport and therefore the federative bodies will be there. and those of the government in defense of the good name of Spanish athletes”, he pointed out.
José Manuel Franco, president of the CSD
The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Franco, assured that the so-called “Negreira case” it can make us lose “the prestige and reputation that Spanish football had” and that “it must be faced with the utmost determination and forcefulness”. “In principle, the fact is very serious and that is why it must be faced seriously, responsibly and rigorously, but also, when the time comes, with the utmost determination and forcefulness. I want to make it perfectly clear that the Higher Sports Council will act with due force when the Prosecutor’s Office finishes its work, ”he said at the end of an act at the CSD headquarters.
“I see it with a lot of concern, especially for what it may have to do with the discredit of Spanish football, which had earned a space in the world as a serious sport, in which things were generally done well, with great prestige and I fear that I may lose part of that prestige and reputation.”said.
“I want to take the opportunity to value in its fair measure what the Tax Agency has done, which is the one that has begun to investigate the case, and then the Prosecutor’s Office, which, said vulgarly, shows that in our country generally the one who does it The payment and that any irregular behavior will always have its consequences”, he added.
Franco reaffirmed that “letting the Prosecutor’s Office work without interference and that once it does its job it will be time to make decisions”, in light of the investigation that the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office is carrying out on the company of the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enriquez Negrerira, for payments of 1.4 million euros between 2016 and 2018.
“Indeed, the administrative, sports route has been prescribed, but it may be the case that criminal proceedings are initiated. If that case were to occur, the Higher Sports Council, always in agreement with its legal services, would study the possibility of also appearing in the criminal case ”he stressed.
Isabel Rodríguez, government spokesperson
The Minister for Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, has ruled on the payment of 1.7 million that Barcelona would have allegedly paid to the former vice-president of the Referees Committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, assuring that “They are not very aesthetic events.” Hence I have asked “try to clarify as soon as possible”, because “the good name of Spanish sport is everywhere”. “The Spain brand also bears the emblem of the Spanish clubs and it is very important to maintain those values in the sports field”, has indicated the minister from Guadalajara, where she has been asked about this issue. After assuring that we will have to wait for the result of the investigation, which the Government “respects”, it has specified that, both based on the previous one and the new Sports Law, in these events “no sanctions would be possible” since more have passed three years from when they occurred and would have prescribed.
