The investigation into the so-called 'Negreira case' has entered a new phase. For a few weeks now, the Civil Guard, by order of the Barcelona Examining Court 1, has been analyzing the numerous documentation provided to the procedure by the Tax Agency, FC Barcelona, banking entities and those involved, such as the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira and his son Javier Enríquez Romero, in addition to police reports made at the request of the Prosecutor's Office.
As this medium was able to learn, the Civil Guard will request new documentation from the Barça club as well as from those involved to clarify various aspects, such as payments to the companies Dasnil 95 and Nilsad SCP, owned by Enríquez Negreira, and the role played by the former manager Josep Contreras, who died a few months ago, whose company received money from Barça for the advisory services and analysis reports carried out by Javier Enríquez, not only on refereeing in matches for the Catalan team but also on their direct rivals such as Real Madrid and the Atletico Madrid.
The court indicated that there are indications that Barça made payments to Enríquez Negreira's companies, "from 2001 to 2018 during his vice presidency at the CTA" and that "they exceeded 7.3 million euros." Most of these amounts received by the former arbitrator were withdrawn in cash from their checking accounts, sometimes through intermediaries. However, the Civil Guard focuses its investigation on knowing the destination of the money and if it was used to achieve "actions tending to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches that the club played and thus in the results of the competitions", as considered by the Prosecutor's Office.
At the moment there are two former Barça presidents, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, and two former Barça executives under investigation, Óscar Grau and Albert Soler, but the number could increase since the Civil Guard, by court order, must clarify the role who held "the positions of General Director, CEO or Executive Director and that of Financial Director, Treasurer or Head of the Club's Economic Area in the period between 2011 and 2014", under Rosell's mandate at Barça. In that period, some two million euros were paid to the former referee, which represented "real remuneration not provided for in the Club's Statutes or approved by the General Assembly, for which reason it lacked a title to justify it." In this way, it is investigated whether there was a possible crime of unfair administration committed by the former Barça leaders.
The agents have also begun to analyze the assets of Enríquez Negreria, his son and his "close environment", as well as that of his companies. The court stressed that it was necessary to "determine the reason or work for which the payments made by FC Barcelona to the companies Dasnil 95 S.L and Nilsad SCP were made, as well as the destination charged by said companies given that there is no increase in assets, according to the Tax Agency" of these companies. In order to determine if there are crimes of corruption in business, in the form of sports fraud, and documentary falsification, the investigators want to know what the money was spent on and if payments were made to third parties with the funds delivered by Barça.
Once the report of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard has been delivered, which will still take several weeks, the court will initiate the summons of those investigated, starting with the former presidents of Barça, Rosell and Bartomeu, as well as Enríquez Negreira himself. , who did not want to testify before the Police when the investigation was carried out by the Prosecutor's Office for health reasons. Then the rest of the defendants in this procedure would come and it is not ruled out that the accusation is extended to other former Barça managers who knew about and covered up the payments.
What is clear is that the judicial investigation will take months to conclude and an exhaustive control of these payments made by the Barça club will be carried out to determine if this alleged sports corruption existed between 2011 and 2018, the time that the continued crime does not prescribe, or well, the former referee's companies were used to allegedly divert money from Barça. Meanwhile, the shadow of suspicion hovers over the Camp Nou.
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