Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has underscored the corrupt aspects of the collaboration between Barcelona and former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) Jose Maria Negreira. The Blancos chief announced that the club has handed over relevant documents on the case to UEFA.
“We recently learned about the Negreira case involving Barcelona, and it’s an incomprehensible situation that is still ongoing. It’s a corruption case! The biggest scandal in football history. Barcelona spent two decades making payments, and those referees are still working. It’s unthinkable! We will immediately submit documents to UEFA because this situation needs to be resolved,” Perez said at a press conference.
To recall, in 2023, Barcelona faced bribery charges over payments made to Negreira, who worked for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The Catalan club is accused of making these payments from 2001 to 2018, totaling approximately €8.4 million. Barcelona maintains that Negreira was hired as an external consultant to produce technical reports on officiating. The former CTA vice-president denies being bribed to influence referees.
