FC Barcelona was charged on Friday by the Barcelona provincial prosecutor’s office with “continued corruption between individuals in the sports field” in addition to other charges in relation to an alleged payment scandal which has rocked Spanish soccer
Former FCB presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, former club CEO Oscar Grau, former club director of professional sports Albert Soler and José María Enríquez Negreira – a former leading refereeing official in Spain – have also been charged.
It has been claimed that the 26 La Liga champions and five-time European Cup winners Barcelona paid Negreira and a company owned by him a fee in the total of €8.4 million (£7.4 million/$8.9 million) between 2001 and 2018.
The lawsuit target the club, along with former Presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, who were running the organisation during the period of the payments.
The Barcelona public prosecutor office have indicted the former Presidents and Negreira for "corruption", "breach of trust" and "false business records".
"FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the Technical Arbitral Committee and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees," said the public prosecutor's office, according to BBC Sport.
Current President Joan Laporta, currently in his second spell leading the club, has denied that they ever bribed referees and ever intended to bribe them, as he launched a internal investigation himself.
La Liga chief executive Javier Tebas claimed that Laporta should resign if he cannot explain the payments, which Laporta is unwilling to do.
The investigation of the situation began after tax authorities were looking into payments made to Negreira's company Dasnil 95, according to Ser Catalunya, a radio station in Spain.
The payments were allegedly €1.4 million (£1.2 million/$1.5 million) from 2016 to 2018.
Negreira himself was paid €7 million (£6.2 million/$7.5 million), it has been claimed.
The payments stopped when Negreira left his role in 2018.
Barcelona recognised the payments made to Dasnil 95 as external technical consultation to help coaches gather videos related to referees.
