Barcelona charged with corruption of referees in scandal far worse than Calciopoli

Barcelona have been charged with corruption of referees in a scandal that on paper seems to be far worse than the Calciopoli trial that sent Juventus to Serie B in 2006.

The Spanish public prosecutor has formally brought charges against the club for payments made to the vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing association, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

He held that role from 1994 to 2018 and was officially paid as an ‘external consultant’ providing reports ‘related to professional refereeing.’

However, the charges state outright that Barcelona paid Negreira “in order to, in exchange for money, prompt actions and refereeing decisions tending to favour Barcelona in games played by the club.”

Also charged with corruption are former Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu, who was in charge from 2014-2020, and Sandro Rosell, who was President from 2010-14.

Prosecutors outlined the total value of payments towards companies owned by Enriquez Negreira at over €7.3m and Barcelona as a club are charged with “continued corruption in business.”

If confirmed, this would make the scandal far worse than the Calciopoli trial that sent Juventus to Serie B, also sparking points penalties for several other clubs including Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina.

In Calciopoli, no club or person was ever even charged with corruption using money in order to gain favourable refereeing decisions on the pitch.

It was at most a system of influence via telephone calls with the refereeing designators to push certain referees towards specific fixtures.

Juventus were demoted to Serie B with a 30-point penalty (later reduced to 9 on appeal) and stripped of two Serie A titles, the 2004-05 one left unassigned and 2005-06 going to Inter, the team top of the table after the points penalties had been enacted.