In a massive legal victory for FC Barcelona, the Spanish Tax Agency has cleared the club of allegations involving bribery of José María Enríquez Negreira, the former Vice President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA).
The Tax Inspection Office in Catalonia released an official report after a deep dive into the payments made by Barcelona to Negreira’s companies. The report concluded that it is “impossible” to prove these payments were bribes or that they influenced refereeing performances in any capacity.
Findings of the Report
While the payments—totaling approximately €7.5 million between 2001 and 2018—are confirmed, the report asserts they were not used to trade secret information or manipulate referee assignments, contrary to claims made by Real Madrid. Key highlights include:
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No payments were made to individual referees.
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All bank withdrawals were documented and requested legally.
Legal Backlash Against Florentino Pérez
Following the report, Miguel Galán, president of the Spanish Association for Transparency and Democracy in Sport, admitted that the allegations lacked factual evidence. In response, Barcelona’s board is reportedly preparing legal action against Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez, who has been a vocal critic during the controversy.
Pérez had previously claimed that Real Madrid was compiling a 500-page dossier of alleged refereeing bias to submit to UEFA in hopes of securing a sanction against the Catalan giants.
