10,000 euros of hams offered to referees with club money

Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. This name was still unknown until recently, but it is now on everyone’s lips in Spain. The former number 2 of Spanish arbitration (CTA) has reportedly received money from the club for 17 years for various services, with justice believing that it could look like corruption “tending to favor Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club, and therefore in the results of the competitions”, as specified by the prosecution. But today the newspaper El Mundo makes new revelations about the gifts made by José María Enríquez Negreira to the Spanish referees with the money, which appears as tax-deductible expenses on the accounts of Negreira’s former company.

An attempt at bribery?

And the least we can say is that some are… surprising! According to tax documents revealed by the media, we find in particular 10,000 euros worth of hams, 1,500 yellow and red cards, tickets for football matches, beach rackets, umbrellas, but also… isothermal bags, corkscrews, toasters, not to mention restaurant invitations, wine, cheese. A long list that may appear as corruption on the part of Negreira via the money paid to him by Barça with one objective: “to favor the FCB in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club, and therefore in the results of the competitions”, as explained by the prosecution.