FC Barcelona paid the vice president of referees Enríquez Negreira seven million since 2001 for alleged verbal advice

FC Barcelona paid around seven million euros to the then vice president of the Spanish referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, since 2001. This is stated, according to judicial sources explained to EL PAÍS, in the investigation that the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office is keeping open for the allegedly unjustified payments that the club made to the former collegiate through the Dasnil company.

Although the invoices exist, there is no documentary trail that proves the reality of those works.

What explains this lack of justification, according to the statement that Enríquez Negreira gave to the Tax Agency, is that his "technical advice" was "verbal."

These payments are different from those that his son, Javier Enríquez, also received for reports on the referees who were going to direct Barça matches and that do have documentary support.

In 2001, during the presidency of Joan Gaspart, the club contracted the services of Enríquez Negreira, then vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), the governing body for referees attached to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

The commission was made to the Dasnil company, which the referee had created just one year after being named number two in the organization.

The reason why the club decided to have his services is one of the unknowns that the Prosecutor's Office is trying to clear up.

The investigation began in May 2022 and, to date, no indications have been found that the money was used to buy the will of the referees to favor Barça.

The only documented explanation is the one offered by Enríquez Negreira himself before the Tax Agency, which opened a tax inspection of his company for irregularities in the invoices between 2016 and 2018. The former referee explained that the club had requested his advisory services to "make sure that no decisions were made against them” during matches and that the team received “neutral” treatment.

When he was called to testify before the Prosecutor's Office, however, he accepted his right not to testify on the grounds that he suffers from Alzheimer's disease, the same sources specify.

The payments to Dasnil, in any case, lasted over time and were assumed for two decades by four Barça boards of directors: those chaired by Joan Gaspart (2000-2003), Joan Laporta (2003-2010), Sandro Rosell (2010 -2014) and Josep Maria Bartomeu (2014-2020) who put an end to these practices in 2018 due to a policy of cutting expenses, according to the version that he himself offered in his statement as a witness before the prosecutor.

The amounts received by the arbitration leader increased significantly, according to the same sources, during Laporta's last stage at the helm of Barça, in his first term (specifically in the 2009-2010 season), when around half a million euros they left the club's coffers bound for Dasnil.

What the arbitrator did with that money is another of the great unknowns since,

According to the Tax Agency, no notable increase in assets has been detected.

Investigators have also verified numerous cash extractions.

The Prosecutor's Office tries to clarify if, beyond the high price of verbal advice, the payments are justified;

that is, if they respond to some real work or obey darker motivations.

One of the starting hypotheses of the researchers is that FC Barcelona tried to win the favor of the referees through Enríquez Negreira;

However, no evidence has been found to point in this direction and, furthermore, the Technical Committee of Referees does not even designate which referees are to direct the matches.

The same sources emphasize, based on the ex-referee's statement, that the club wanted to have a friendly face in the governing body of the referees, regardless of whether it did not help them to obtain advantageous decisions.

If one of these extremes is demonstrated, the facts can be framed within a crime of corruption between individuals, which punishes (among other sports actors) club directors and referees who "have for purpose of deliberately and fraudulently predetermining or altering the result of a professional competition”.

If Barça, on the other hand, has paid seven million euros for non-existent services, an unfair administration crime could have been committed, which punishes (with up to three years in jail) anyone who exceeds their duties when managing other people's assets and causes "patrimonial damage", in this case to the members of Barça.

The prosecution, in any case,

You must examine the investigations and decide whether to file the case or if you see signs of crime and file a complaint or complaint in court.

The investigation focuses on the period 2016-2018 (the Bartomeu stage) because the previous criminal acts, if they existed, would have prescribed due to the time elapsed.

A commission agent in payments to the son

In addition to the payments to the arbitration leader, according to the ongoing investigation there is a second block of payments to his son, the sports

Javier Enríquez.

Although he has been listed as Dasnil's administrator since 2004, investigators believe that the son did not have a relevant role in the company.

The invoices were collected through a company owned by him, Soccer Camp.

Enríquez Negreira put his son in contact with an intermediary linked to FC Barcelona who, in exchange for a large commission —which could amount to 50% of the amount— allowed the

He was also hired by the club.

According to sources from the investigation, Barça did not make payments directly to Soccer Camp, but to the company offered by the intermediary.

His testimony could have been relevant, but the intermediary is deceased.

The payments to the son do correspond, always according to the same sources, with work actually carried out.

His company delivered weekly - or every time Barça and its subsidiary played matches - a written report and a DVD video in which the behavior of the referees was analyzed.

Enríquez has handed over to the police the reports for which he charged from Barça.

In his statements before the Prosecutor's Office, club managers have confirmed this point.

On Monday, the former president Josep Maria Bartomeu declared, who stated that the club's contact was the

and that he was unaware that he had paid the former vice president of the referees.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has opened a file reserved for both FC Barcelona and the Technical Committee of Referees to clarify the facts and has announced that it will appear in legal proceedings that may arise from the facts.

The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, criticized that the rules that monitor conflicts of interest "did not work".

"The services should never have been provided (...) Both ethically and aesthetically, these things cannot happen in Spanish football," said Tebas, who nevertheless ruled out the possibility of sports sanctions being imposed on Barça since that the facts would have prescribed.

He also announced that he will appear as an accusation in the event that the Prosecutor's Office files a complaint in the courts.

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