Real Madrid has submitted a dossier exceeding 50,000 pages to UEFA, alleging that Barcelona made payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain’s referees’ committee. The dossier claims these payments, totalling 8.4 million euros (£7.2m) between 2001 and 2018, compromise the integrity of football competitions and call into question the confidence in the refereeing system.
UEFA confirmed receipt of the “substantial” dossier on Thursday and said its ethics and disciplinary inspectors will assess the evidence as part of an ongoing review. The case concerns accusations that Barcelona paid Negreira in exchange for favourable refereeing decisions, an allegation Barcelona has repeatedly denied.
Barcelona insists the payments were for scouting and technical reports on officials provided by Negreira and his company, Dasnil 95. The club’s statement stressed that UEFA had not opened any new proceedings. “Proceedings were initiated in 2023, with the appointment of two investigators who have since carried out the action they deemed appropriate,” the statement read. “The club has always complied with all their requests.”
Barcelona added that the case remains subject to ongoing criminal proceedings in Spain and that UEFA’s investigation had not been reopened because it had never been closed. The club said it had not received any new requests from investigators or copies of Real Madrid’s complaint and would respond accordingly if that changed.
Real Madrid called for the investigation to proceed “as quickly as possible until its complete conclusion” and urged UEFA to “adopt the corresponding decisions in accordance with the seriousness of the proven facts.” The club described the evidence as of “extraordinary gravity” and said it directly affected trust in refereeing.
UEFA’s initial investigation concluded in June 2023, when its ethics committee decided that Barcelona would not face sanctions. Since then, Barcelona has continued to compete in European tournaments. Meanwhile, a Barcelona court has been examining the case since 2023, with the judicial process ongoing.
La Liga president Javier Tebas commented on the matter in March 2023, stating that the league could not act because the alleged incidents were too old. “The case is time-barred in sports law, but not in criminal law,” he said.
The dossier’s arrival adds pressure on UEFA to reconsider the matter. Real Madrid’s extensive submission suggests new material that they say undermines previous findings. UEFA’s inspectors will now have to determine whether the documents warrant reopening the investigation or imposing sanctions.
The case remains one of the most detailed and contentious in European football, drawing attention to the relationship between clubs and referees. How UEFA responds to the new evidence may influence perceptions of fairness in the sport and the governance of refereeing in Spain.
According to Joy Online.
