FC Barcelona may be excluded from the Champions League after being accused of paying off officials. SunSport reported in March that if the Catalan giants are found guilty, they risk being kicked out of Europe’s top league. FC Barcelona has reportedly been accused of bribery by judge Joaquin Aguirre, according to the Spanish publication El Debate. Now, if this charge comes to be proven, then the Catalan club might be facing the axe from the Champions League.
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Final verdict! FC Barcelona faces charge with bribery in ‘Negreira case’
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FC Barcelona in trouble over bribery charges
Jose Maria Enruquez Negreira, a former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, received payments totaling £6 million. The former presidents of FC Barcelona, Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as Negreira and his son Javier Enriquez Romero, have all been prosecuted.
The LaLiga champions are accused of violating a regulation that forbids public servants from accepting compensation for their work. The Supreme Court have classified Negreira as an individual who was performing a public function.
According to the claims, Josep Contreras, an ex-director of FC Barcelona, set up a shell business through which Negreira was allegedly handed money. Additionally, it is claimed that Contreras received a 50% commission from this deal.
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Former referee Alberto Gimenez claims Negreira called him a “chicken” at a “secret match-fixing meeting” and that Gimenez was the target of the accusation.
He told RadioMarca, ‘Negreira pressured me. He met me with other referees and told me: ‘Hey chicken, be careful with what you say on television. You already understand me. Be careful’. There is a formula for fixing matches. It’s a fool’s trap: I’m a friend of ‘such and such’ who will support you, you give me so much and I’ll fix it for you.’
He continued, ‘If the result is negative, the money is returned. If he wins, he is marked for life. If he loses and returns the money, he has another chance.’
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Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, earlier requested Laporta, the president of FC Barcelona, to provide an explanation. The club’s vice-president, Rafael Yuste, then said that an inquiry had already been launched after hiring a law firm.
The payments to Negreira’s Dasnil firm, according to Yuste, ceased in 2018. A Champions League suspension is one of FC Barcelona’s possible penalties. The Spanish side have not won the competition since 2015 and were eliminated in the group stage in each of the past two seasons.
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