Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira is a Spanish referee with him and his company accused in the Barcelona bribery case scandal
Barcelona finds itself in the crosshairs of a formal investigation into potential bribery, spanning a staggering two decades of activities within the country’s refereeing committee, as revealed in a court document obtained by Reuters.
Who is football referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira accused in Barcelona bribery case and charges against him
Former Barcelona directors claim they paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira to defend the club, reports Spanish newspaper El Mundo and the Camp Nou club have been charged by Spain’s prosecutor’s office with corruption for paying Negreira €7.3 million.
The payments took place between 2001 and 2018, when Negreira was vice president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee and El Mundo have dug deeper and spoken with some of Barca’s former directors in confidentiality.
They claim the payments were for protection against a perceived bias and the club wanted compensation for the favours they perceived Real Madrid received.
Manchester City since 2008…
– 115 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules following a four-year investigationBarcelona between 2001 and 2018…
– Made payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, in return for favourable refereeing decisions.Pep Guardiola…
— Suhail (@SuhailChowdhary) September 28, 2023
Barcelona have been charged with suspected bribery for payments worth more than €7 million made to companies linked to the former vice president of the refereeing committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, judicial sources have told Spanish news agency EFE. pic.twitter.com/vl3RrYocc9
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) September 28, 2023
The investigating judge, Joaquín Aguirre López, has expressed worries over Barcelona’s probable involvement in “possible systemic corruption” this month. The probe is still ongoing, despite Barcelona adamantly rejecting any wrongdoing in a statement released in February.
Prosecutors filed a lawsuit in March, claiming payments totaling more than €7.3 million made over a 17-year period to businesses connected to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. Negreira served as the vice president of the football federation’s refereeing committee (CTA) from 1993 to 2018.
In their defense, Barcelona stated in February that they had hired an outside consultant who had given them technical papers linked to professional officiating. The club argued that these agreements were typical in the world of professional football.
Judge Aguirre said that Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira was in charge of rating and assessing the referees. But, according to Aguirre in early September, there is no proof that Negreira paid referees to influence game outcomes.
Since then, Negreira has become the talk of the town, with many people trying to find out more about him. So, here’s what we know about him:
Who is Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira?
Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira is a professional Spanish referee. He has been in the news because Barcelona faces a formal investigation into suspected bribery linked to him.
He was born on 6 September 1945 in Barcelona, Spain. He is married; however, not much is known about his family.
Negreira is currently 78 years old.
His career
Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira presided over significant games in the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup throughout his 13 seasons in the Spanish First Division as a professional match referee from 1975 until his retirement in 1992.
After his career as a referee, which came to an end in 1992 with second-division games, he shifted to a position within the technical committee of referees in 1994. He was elected to one of the three vice presidential seats and served in that capacity until 2018. This continued his rise to prominence within the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
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