A Barça manager charged commissions of almost 50% in the club's payments to the son of the former referee

The former director of FC Barcelona Josep Contreras.FC Barcelona

The name of Josep Contreras, former director of FC Barcelona who died in December, emerges more and more strongly in the scandal over the million-dollar payments that the club made to referee director José María Enríquez Negreira and his son, sports coach Javier

Enríquez

The investigation of the Prosecutor's Office has proven that the payments to the son were not direct, but were channeled through Tresep, an instrumental company owned by the ex-director culé.

In exchange for his intermediation, Contreras allegedly obtained commissions that in many cases amounted to 50% of the amount paid by the club for the

's services , as EL PAÍS has learned through judicial sources.

The investigation has verified that, at least since 2001 (under the presidency of Joan Gaspart) and until July 2018 —when another president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, dispensed with the service— FC Barcelona paid close to seven million euros to José María Enríquez Negreira, who during all that time was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, the governing body of the members of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

According to what the former arbitration leader declared before the Tax Agency, the club sought his services ("verbal" advice without any documentary support) to ensure "neutral" arbitrations, which would not harm it.

For now, the investigation has not been able to prove either the real reason for these payments or the destination that Enríquez Negreira gave to the money, which he periodically withdrew in cash.

Payments to the former referee were made through Dasnil, a sole proprietorship that is domiciled in a house in the Horta-Guinardó neighborhood (Barcelona) and whose corporate purpose includes, among others, "advertising services for companies" and "carrying out sports videos.

Enríquez Negreira created it in 1995, a year after becoming number two among Spanish referees.

Dasnil lived for and for Barça, which was practically his only client and source of income, as can be inferred if the data from the Tax Agency are compared with the company's balance sheets.

The investigation into Barça's payments began in May 2022. The Tax Agency had opened an inspection of Dasnil over three years (2016, 2017 and 2018) for accounting irregularities and detected invoices with no apparent justification.

In 2016, Barça paid 532,728 euros to the former collegiate's company, which that year declared sales of 567,136 euros, which means that the Barça club accounted for almost 94% of its income.

Something very similar happened the following year.

In 2018, Barça stopped payments in July, prompting an angry protest from Enríquez Negreira.

That year, Barça paid him 318,200 euros and the company declared sales for a very similar amount (329,373).

The following year, without its star client and amid threats to uncover irregularities, Dasnil's sales plummeted to 7,348 euros.

The son of the former referee is Javier Enríquez, a renowned professional in the world of football, who came to advise the Spanish team.

He was the sole administrator and proxy of Dasnil, and according to the commercial register, he continues to appear as manager, purchasing manager and commercial manager.

The investigation, however, considers that it was his father who held the reins of the company.

He is also the person who, at a certain moment, opened a new access door to the club through an old acquaintance: Josep Contreras.

The investigators have come to the conclusion that the

did carry out work for Barça, regardless of whether they were more or less expensive: before each game he sent written technical reports, sometimes accompanied by a DVD, in which he analyzed the behavior of the referee in question.

This material was delivered to the club offices, which sent it to the coaching staff of the first team and the subsidiary to assess whether it could be useful before the next match, always in state competitions.

The members of the Barça board who have testified before the Prosecutor's Office —including Bartomeu, who did so as an investigated— and Enríquez Jr. have presented the reports as proof of the reality of the work.

deceased on christmas

Javier Enríquez directs and is the sole shareholder of Soccercam, although at the beginning of its activity (2002) his father and sister appeared as proxies.

However, and despite the fact that he was the service provider, he did not charge directly from Barça.

According to what sources of the investigation have explained to this newspaper, the invoices were conveyed through Tresep, an instrumental company owned by Contreras.

In exchange for activating the appropriate contacts at the club, Contreras would allegedly receive a commission that, according to the same sources, rose in many cases to 50% of the bill.

The analysis of the Soccercam accounts indicates that in 2017 it declared sales of 114,780 euros, which fell the following year to 72,845, almost in the same proportion in which Dasnil's income had fallen: in July, Barça had closed the tap and dispensed with of your services.

Like the father's company, Soccercam's revenue plummeted in 2019 (just $16,089), and while it recovered in later years, it never reached previous levels.

The newspaper

uncovered on Saturday the existence of 19 invoices with very similar concepts (“provision of educational-sports services”, including the “issuance of reports”) that Barça paid to Tresep and that total more than 728,000 euros between 2015 alone and 2018. This figure almost certainly represents the total amount paid in this way, since Tresep was created in 2014.

Contreras's testimony seemed key for investigators.

Perhaps he could have clarified why Barça hired the former referee.

But they have not arrived in time to quote him.

He died on December 25.

A member of the boards of directors of Josep Lluís Núñez, Joan Gaspart and, later, of Bartomeu, he was always linked to Barça through the subsidiary and the club's social commission.

Thanks to his friendship with Ángel María Villar, he became the link between the Barça club and the Federation.

He was investigated for alleged irregularities in the awarding of works by the Catalan Football Federation, where he was vice president.

Dedicated to the "provision of educational services", since its creation in 2014 Tresep has changed its administrator several times, although it has kept the former Barça director as proxy from the beginning.

The data from the commercial registry is scant and barely indicates that, in 2018, it declared sales for 132,000 euros.

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