Andrés Iniesta has defended Barcelona’s achievements during his time with the club, insisting he never felt the Catalan side received refereeing assistance linked to the José María Enríquez Negreira case.
Iniesta’s comments came during an interview with AS, while the case regarding payments made by Barcelona to companies linked to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees remains under investigation without a final ruling.
“From a football perspective, there is no room for debate,” Iniesta said. “Even though the case has not reached its conclusion, if they analyzed all the matches from the era being discussed, they wouldn’t find even 1% of that alleged assistance.”
The Barcelona legend added: “I never heard anything of the sort, I never saw anything, and at no point did I feel that we received any help.”
He continued: “In every match, fans and players feel the opposing team gained an advantage or benefited from certain decisions—that is simply a part of what always happens in football.”
The case concerns payments exceeding €7 million made by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018 to companies linked to Negreira, who was serving as vice president of the refereeing committee at the time. The club maintains the funds were for refereeing reports and consulting services.
Turning to the Ballon d’Or, Iniesta played down individual awards relative to team trophies, stating: “What every team’s fans want is to win championships. The Ballon d’Or isn’t an achievement you can place on the same level as La Liga or the Champions League.”
The man who scored Spain’s 2010 World Cup-winning goal did not name a specific player as most deserving of the award, but offered a general preference, concluding: “I would like a Spanish player to win it—that would make sense after winning the World Cup.”
