Real Madrid on Wednesday claimed that they have evidence that LaLiga rivals Barcelona paid bribes to referees, in what is now known as as the ‘Negreira case’.
The Negreira case is an ongoing legal investigation into payments totaling over €7.3 million allegedly made by Barcelona to companies owned by the former vice president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira, between 2001 and 2018.
Barca insist the payments were for legitimate technical and referee consulting reports, while prosecutors are investigating allegations of corruption and unfair administration.
But Madrid have now sent a letter to UEFA stating their claims.
FULL LETTER:
In this letter, the club has informed UEFA of the existence of relevant evidence that conclusively reinforces the indications already known from the beginning about the existence of long-term payments, opaque and lacking any verifiable justification, made by the F. C Barcelona to the one who was vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, José María Enríquez Negreira, through different corporate structures.
Real Madrid emphasizes that these facts constitute, from the perspective of sports disciplinary law, a systemic risk of maximum gravity for the integrity of competitions, by evidencing the existence of a structure of undue influence on the arbitration system, incompatible with the essential principles of competitive equality, neutrality, impartiality and unpredictability of the sports result.
In this context, Real Madrid has urged the immediate resumption of the disciplinary file initiated at the time by UEFA, considering it unacceptable that this situation has been prolonged over time, since its persistence seriously compromises the credibility of football, its institutions and its leaders, so it demands a firm, exemplary and immediate response in the sports field, independent of the future of the ongoing judicial proceedings.
Therefore, our club asks UEFA, in the exercise of its own, autonomous and independent competence, to adopt the disciplinary and restorative measures that are appropriate in order to guarantee the integrity, transparency and proper functioning of the competitions, without this implying, in any case, replacing the function of the jurisdictional bodies of the State or anticipating a criminal qualification of the facts.
In this sense, Real Madrid, in person in the ongoing criminal proceedings as a private accusation, will exercise, as it has been doing since its inception, the actions that correspond at each procedural moment.
Real Madrid reaffirms its commitment to the defense of the essential values of sport and will continue to promote as many actions as necessary to ensure that events of this nature do not go unpunished.