The scandal over Barcelona’s payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice president of the Referees Committee, has shaken the world of football, and has put the Blaugrana club on target. The news uncovered by the program What do you play about BEING?and confirmed by this newspaper, has generated a great debate and now El País expands the information by providing data on how the relationship between Barcelona and Negreira’s company was produced.
according to the countrythe company of the former vice president of the CTA delivered an envelope to the club’s offices every time Barcelona played a League or Copa del Rey match. The envelope contained a written report and a DVD video analyzing the profile and behavior on the pitch of the referee who was to direct the next match. The operation, which was repeated every week with the matches played by the first team but also with those of Barça B, was detailed by two club witnesses during their statement at the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office, judicial sources have explained to EL PAÍS.
Former referee Enríquez Negreira explained to the Treasury inspectors that he did not have documentation because the “technical advice” he provided was verbal, and that the club had required his services to “ensure that no decisions were made against him” and that he received “neutral” treatment, as he explained. The lack of specification on the effective provision of these services made the Treasury suspicious, which brought the case to the attention of the Prosecutor’s Office.
archived reports
However, and As AS published yesterday, from club management sources at that time this commercial relationship is recognized and it is maintained that these works were carried out. DASNIL 95 SL reports are archived and they can present them at any time before a court.
The payments that are now being analyzed by the Prosecutor’s Office correspond to the stage of Josep Maria Bartomeu at the helm of Barça. But all the sources consulted, both sports and judicial, agree that the services had been contracted for two decades: under the presidencies of Joan Gaspart, Joan Laporta and Sandro Rosell, the club had the advice of Dasnilcontrolled by Enríquez Negreira who, at the same time, served as number two of the Arbitration Technical Committee (CTA), the governing body of the referees of the Spanish Football Federation.
El País points out that everything changed in 2018. The Treasury communicated its suspicions about the invoices to Barça, which dispensed with Dasnil in June, a month before Enríquez Negreira left office on the Committee. By then, the interlocutor with the club was no longer the veteran ex-referee but his son, Javier Enriqueza sports coach who has been the sole administrator of the company since 2004.
Enríquez Jr. contradicts Enríquez Sr.
Javier Enríquez testified at the time before the National Police Corps by order of the Prosecutor’s Office. The son denied the father’s version, assured that the reports were delivered in writing (as club sources point out) and defended the validity of his work with Barça, which represented practically all of Dasnil’s turnover. Two members of Bartomeu’s team who also testified before the police as witnesses have ratified that version. According to his account, it was Javier and not the former vice president of the referees who was the interlocutor with the club, at least during that stage.