La Liga president Javier Tebas confirms that the club won’t get sanctioned because of an allegation against a former referee
The outspoken La Liga president Javier Tebas has confirmed that Barcelona won’t face any sanction in regard to allegations toward former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
Tebas exonerates Barcelona
Javier Tebas claims that the alleged payment of €1.4million between 2016 and 2018 from Barcelona to Negreira’s company DASNIL 95 SL, won’t have any repercussions for the Catalan club.
Negreir has claimed that the payment was mainly for a consulting gig where he advised Barca players how to act in games in regards to refereeing.
Barcelona have denied the allegations and have confirmed to have hired “an external consultant” to provide “technical reports related to professional refereeing” which they say is common practice among football clubs.
“it is not possible to impose sports disciplinary sanctions because five years have already passed.“
“It is evident that in 2018 and in previous years the ‘compliance’ regulations which monitor conflicts of interest, both for Barcelona and the referee’s committee, failed,” Tebas said in a video message published on social media on Thursday.
“From what we are seeing, what’s been revealed in the media, they obviously didn’t work as these services should never have been provided. Neither the amounts of money, nor the facts which have been unveiled.
“We must clarify from the outset, we have already looked into [sporting sanctions] – it is not possible to impose sports disciplinary sanctions because five years have already passed.
“Criminal jurisdiction is another issue. Now the prosecutor’s office is investigating the events that occurred and whether there may be a possible crime of corruption between individuals in terms of match-fixing. Let’s see how that investigation ends.
“At LaLiga, we are going to wait and respect the prosecutor’s office investigation and once that has finished, see whether it does decide to file the appropriate complaint or lawsuit in the corresponding courts. From there, we will make decisions.”
“Obviously there is a disappointment but we all knew that there would be no qualification or elimination tonight,” Galtier said after the game. “We will see in three weeks what state our squad will be in, if we will have recovered freshness and the players we are missing to play a full match at the level of the last half hour played this evening.”
