The noose is tightening around FC Barcelona more than ever entangled in the Negreira affair.
Confined until then to the borders of Spain, the scandal is now spreading internationally with an investigation carried out since Thursday by UEFA and the ethics and discipline inspectors.
According to the Spanish daily Marca, UEFA considers that there are sufficient elements to investigate a possible breach of the regulations.
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In accordance with Article 31(4) of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors have been appointed to conduct an investigation into a possible breach of UEFA's legal framework by the FC Barcelona as part of the so-called 'Caso Negreira
', indicates the press release from the European body, which specifies that further information on this subject will be available "
in due course
".
The news is very worrying for the Catalan club who risk outright exclusion from all European competition if the accusations are verified.
The "FCB" which prances at the head of La Liga in front of the great rival, Real Madrid, is already in the sights of Spanish justice.
Last week, the Barcelona N.1 investigating court launched a judicial investigation into this arbitration scandal which saw FC Barcelona and several of its former leaders being charged with "corruption" and "breach of trust
"
in
particular
. .
The Spanish justice accuses them of having "
obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with José Maria Enriquez
Negreira
so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitration committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to favor FC Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees
”.
7.3 million paid in exchange for arbitration benefits for FC Barcelona?
According to the prosecution, the Catalan club would have paid between 2001 and 2018 a total of more than 7.3 million euros to José Maria Enriquez Negreira, former referee and ex-vice president of the technical arbitration committee of the Spanish Football Federation between 1994 and 2018. But on the sporting level in Spain, Barça does not risk anything: the facts, more than five years old, are considered prescribed, according to the president of La Liga Javier Tebas.
On the criminal level, on the other hand, the leaders implicated risk sentences of six months to four years in prison.
This scandal provoked a wave of indignation and criticism: at the Bernabéu, at the beginning of March, or in Bilbao, last weekend, Catalan supporters suffered a rain of counterfeit notes bearing the effigy of the accused.
The announcement of an investigation by UEFA does not
