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UEFA opened an official investigation into FC Barcelona over the “Negreira case,” the European soccer governing physique introduced on Thursday morning. UEFA issued an official assertion saying that “UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors have immediately been appointed to conduct an investigation concerning a possible violation of UEFA’s authorized framework by FC Barcelona in reference to the so-called ‘Caso Negreira’. Further data concerning this matter will probably be made out there sooner or later.”
It’s not clear but what potential conclusions or penalties this motion will carry to the Spanish membership. Spanish prosecutors have filed corruption prices in opposition to Barcelona and former membership presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu for allegedly making funds to an organization owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, an ex-vice president of the referee committee in Spain who labored beneath the Spanish soccer affiliation between 1993 and 2018. Former membership executives Oscar Grau and Albert Soler have additionally been listed within the case.
The public prosecutor’s workplace investigating the case revealed that Negreira obtained roughly over €7 million in funds from the membership between 2001 and 2018 to affect match outcomes. Their declare is that beneath a secret settlement and in change for funds, Negreira favored Barcelona in each choices taken by referees in video games performed by the membership in addition to in competitors outcomes. If that is confirmed to be true, this might change into one of many main earthquakes within the latest historical past of the membership.
Barca have maintained their innocence and vowed to “take authorized motion in opposition to those that harm the membership’s picture with potential insinuations opposite to the fame of the establishment which could possibly be produced primarily based on this data.”
The UEFA investigation is the third one after the Spanish tax workplace has been investigating Negreira over missed tax funds, whereas the Anti-Corruption Department has launched an investigation on the idea of “steady corruption.”
