After weeks in all the headlines, the reports prepared by the former vice-president of the referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, have come to light, for which FC Barcelona would have paid more than seven million euros. Libertad Digital has had access to some of these reports, with a very unprofessional image, headed under the heading ‘confidential’ and the title ‘Refereeing report for FC Barcelona’. They contain the personal data of the referee analyzed and a brief profile of their character and characteristics as referees.
These are documents of no more than two or three pages and full of misspellings and other errors for which the company Dasnil 95, owned by Enríquez Negreira, allegedly charged 7.3 million per year between 2001 and 2018. These documents were found in the search of the home of the former director of the blaugrana entity Josep Contreras, who died at the end of last year. The Prosecutor’s Office believes that during the presidencies of Núñez, Gaspart and Bartomeu he was in charge of carrying out the transactions between the club and Negreira in exchange for high commissions that could reach 50%.
One of the reports that Libertad Digital has had access to refers to Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva, currently working as a VAR referee. It is dated November 2012, prior to the duel that the Galician referee would lead FC Barcelona in Mallorca. At this time, the club was chaired by Sandro Rosell, a stage in which the Prosecutor’s Office attributes payments from Barça to Negreira for a value of two million euros between January 2011 and January 2014.
“Nacho is a very technical and disciplined referee”, the document includes, among other observations about Iglesias Villanueva, such as that he is “very well physically prepared”, that “he has more doubts in actions due to grabs in corners”, or that “he is reasonable and You can talk to him in a polite way.” “Because of his level of serenity and courage, he will reprimand or expel as many players as deserved it” can be read throughout a page with observations of this style written with numerous syntax and spelling errors.
The Negreira case passed yesterday into the hands of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, who took up the case given the “great importance” of the matter. In it, the former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, two former directors and the club itself, as a legal entity, are accused of allegedly paying the former number two of the referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, in exchange for arbitration favors.
La Vanguardia has had access to the full list of witnesses who are called to testify before the judge, including the current Blaugrana president, Joan Laporta, the former presidents Joan Gaspar, or those who were coaches of the first team, Ernesto Valverde and Luis Enrique. Among the dozen witnesses there is no arbitrator.
