The last name to appear on the scene in the ‘Negreira case’ has been that of the former director of Barcelona Josep Contreras. Passed away on December 25, Contreras was part of the club for decades, under the presidencies of Josep Lluís Núñez, Joan Gaspart and Josep Maria Bartomeu. According to the latest information published by El País, a company of this would have channeled the payments that were made between the club and the former vice president of the referees José María Enríquez Negreira, in exchange for a succulent commission of up to 50% of the amount.
“The investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office has proven that the payments to the son were not direct, but were carried out through Treseps, an instrumental company owned by the former director of Culé,” the newspaper maintains. In other words, Enríquez Negreira and his son did not charge directly from Barcelona, ??despite being their direct client, they did so through the Contreras company, which took a large commission in return. The newspaper El Mundo yesterday revealed up to 19 invoices that the Barça club would have paid to Tresep, a company created in 2014, for amounts that rise above 728,000 euros between 2015 and 2018.
FC Barcelona, ??as can be seen from the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office and La Vanguardia has been able to certify by sources from the club itself, paid for years for consultancies to the company DASNIL 95, owned by the former vice president of referees, owned of José María Enríquez Negreira, former referee of the First Division and vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) between 1994 and 2018.
Under the presidencies of Núñez, Laporta, Rosell and Bartomeu, he would have pocketed millions of euros (a total of seven million euros since 2001 according to El País), with the Catalan entity being practically the only client of DASNIL 95. The case was uncovered by the investigation that was initiated as a result of a tax inspection of DASNIL 95 SL for the taxation of payments of 1.4 million made by FC Barcelona between 2016 and 2018. According to the information, Barcelona paid the aforementioned company 532,728.02 euros in 2016, 541,752 euros in 2017 and 318,200 euros in 2018, which is when the last payment was made, a date that coincides with the constitution of a new CTA and the departure of Enríquez Negreira from the Committee.
His close relationship with Ángel María Villar made him the club’s link with the Federation. Josep Contreras Arjona dedicated a large part of his time as a manager of Barça to the subsidiary team, which he accompanied to all its matches and trips, as well as to the Sports Commission of the blaugrana entity, to which he remained linked even after his departure from the club . In addition, he also presided over Gavà and was linked to Catalan football through the Catalan Federation, where he was vice-president.
As second to Andreu Subies, he experienced some of the worst years of his career. A corruption scandal brought him under pressure in 2018 for the irregular awarding of some works by the Catalan Federation. Contreras took contracts worth ten million euros, subcontracting the work for four million. In gratitude to Subies, he took over the cost of the controversial reform of the residence of the President of the Federation. With this movement, the manager would have pocketed six million euros, a crime for which he was arrested and accused of irregular awarding of works, a corporate crime and unfair administration.
