February 22 – Spanish clubs have jointly expressed their concern over reports that for years Barcelona paid a company owned by a former Catalan referee almost €1.4 million for “technical advice”.
Barca have been under scrutiny since a state prosecutor was revealed to be probing club payments to a company that belonged to the vice-president of the Spanish federation’s refereeing committee.
Barca has denied any wrongdoing, saying it paid for technical reports on referees but never tried to influence their decisions in games.
The league released a statement saying the majority of clubs showed “deep concern about this case, which they consider to be of the utmost seriousness.”
The statement received the backing of all clubs in the first and second divisions with the exception of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
La Liga’s outspoken chief Javier Tebas said the case damaged the reputation of Spanish football and that Barcelona president Joan Laporta “should resign if he can’t explain the payments.”
Laporta on Tuesday attacked what he called a campaign to try and damage Barcelona’s reputation.
“Tebas has always showed that he is anti-Barcelona,” Laporta charged. “He tries to destabilise us. But I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of resigning.”
The payments, which have yet to be linked to any illegal or improper activity by Barcelona, were being investigated as part of a tax probe into a company owned by former vice-president of the refereeing committee, Maria Enriquez Negreira. The money was allegedly paid between 2016 and 2018.
The league said sporting sanctions against Barcelona were not possible because the statute of limitations on the possible irregularities had expired.
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