A few days ago, the Italian club Juventus was fined 15 points for lying in the financial statements of the transfer. This time, the same type of punishment is facing Barcelona . However, Barca may be relegated from La Liga due to the large punishment.
The Catalan club are alleged to have paid 1.4 million euros (1.4 million euros) to Jose Negreria, then vice-president of La Liga's technical committee of referees, for advice while Jose Maria Bartemeu was president. This payment was made over three years till 2016-18.
From 1994 to 2018, Negreria served in the Royal Spanish Football Federation. SER Catalunya radio claims that Negreria, who once served as a referee in La Liga, was paid 532,728 euros by his company DASNIL in 2016, 5,41,000 euros in 2017 and 3,18,200 euros in 2018.
While testifying at the prosecutor's office, Negreria and his son, however, denied giving Barca extra benefits in exchange for money. Negreria said that he did not give any special advantage to Barca especially during the performance of the duties of the referee.
They claim that this money was given for working as a consultant. Where they taught the Barcelona players how to deal with the referee. In addition, Negreria also taught the players what behavior can and cannot be done, taking into account which referee is performing the duty in the match.
Negreria, however, could not show any documents related to this work. However, the Barcelona authorities have expressed their position in a response. Barca say they have taken services from Negreria's organization in the past as external technical consultants. However, they denied being involved in any kind of unethical and illegal activities.
"Barcelona is aware of the ongoing investigation into payments to external companies," Barca said in a statement. What we want to make clear is that Barca has taken the help of external technical consultants before. Through which club officials were provided with reports in video format on young players from other clubs in Spain. Besides, at the request of the coaching staff, they would provide various information about the professional referees, which is very common in professional football. The Barca authorities also expressed disappointment that this information came to light when they were in their best rhythm. Along with that, the club has announced to take action against those who are trying to undermine the image of Barca.