The Government of Spain joins the legal action against Barcelona for cash from the referee’s consultant

The Government Sports Department will join the legal action against FC Barcelona for payments of 8.4 million euros to an arbitration consultant.

The money went to a company owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, with some of the payments coinciding with his role as vice-president of the Spanish Federation’s referee committee.

The president of the Sports Council, José Manuel Franco, said Telecinco on Monday that his body will join other parties in the case.

A Barcelona court heard last Friday that Barcelona and Negreira had been charged with ‘corruption’, ‘breach of trust’ and ‘falsification of business records’.

The case of the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office also names the former presidents of the club Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.

A trial judge will decide whether the allegations should lead to charges.

The payments came to light last month after an investigation by tax authorities into the company Dasnil 95 de Negreira.

The leaders of LaLiga acknowledged having paid Dasnil 95, which they described as “an external technical adviser” to compile video reports related to professional referees “with the aim of complementing the information required by the coaching staff.”

He said that commissioning the reports was ‘standard practice among professional clubs’.

The club claimed it had done nothing wrong, adding that there was no conflict of interest related to the payments made between 2001 and 2018.

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