Sevilla was the first club to rule on what was dubbed the ‘Negreira case’ and Espanyol followed shortly after. The blue and white club is “alarmed”, while the Sevilla fans have expressed their “concern and indignation” on Monday over Barça’s payments to the company Dasnil 95, owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, former referee and former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees.
“RCD Espanyol de Barcelona is alarmed by the information published in different media in relation to the so-called “Negreira case”. Although it is still in the investigation phase, the possible implications of what has been published for our competition, the clubs that we compose it and the organisms affected would be of such seriousness that they require exceptional action when it comes to clarifying what has really happened and, where appropriate, debugging the corresponding responsibilities at the national and/or international level”, requests in a statement the parakeet entity.
The Barça team paid Enríquez Negreira for more than a decade for arbitration reports for the first team and the subsidiary that were first verbal and later, with the entry into the company of his son, Javier Enríquez Romero, were, above all, in format DVD. Barça cut off its relationship with Dasnil 95 in June 2018, shortly after Enríquez Negreira left his position at the CTA.
Espanyol recalls that it has always “advocated scrupulous compliance with the law and established procedures”, which is why they urge “the competent bodies and institutions to deal with the matter with the speed and exemplary nature that corresponds to a case that casts doubt on the reputation of our football internationally”.
Barça’s payments to Dasnil 95 came to light as a result of a Treasury investigation into Enríquez Negreira’s tax irregularities related to invoices with the Barça club between 2016 and 2018, as revealed by the ‘Què T’ program hi Jugues’ from Cadena Ser. The total amount of the payments amounts to 7 million euros since 2001, according to El País.
The club chaired by Chen Yansheng takes advantage of the letter to recall the precautionary measure that ordinary courts granted to Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski to be able to play the Barcelona derby on December 31: “Recently, our club was affected by a resolution of another nature that, in our opinion, put the normal functioning of our competition at risk, beyond the damage caused directly to our club”. Finally, the blue and whites ask “the rest of the clubs and organizations to take a step forward in defense of the proper functioning and good name” of Spanish football.
For its part, Sevilla also structures its statement based on the same ideas, asking the competent bodies to act to clear the name of national competitions and requests responsibility from managers to safeguard the honesty of football and transparency towards its fans. .
“Sevilla FC wishes to show its concern and indignation at the data that, day after day, has been revealed through the media, making it clear that it is absolutely necessary to get to the bottom of the matter to clarify what happened, and , where appropriate, purge the appropriate responsibilities”, the Seville club begins its statement.
“The seriousness of the facts known to date, calling into question or raising doubts about the integrity of Spanish football competitions, also leads Sevilla FC to publicly request the League and the RFEF, as the highest representatives of Spanish football The RFEF is also the head of the arbitration group, so that, when the time comes, they promote and appear in all the procedures that may arise from this case once the investigation is finished”, Sevilla demands the two entities, which They have already expressed their intention to appear in a possible judicial process.
“Finally, it is the wish of Sevilla FC to state that, beyond the clubs and their institutions, the fans of all the teams deserve respect, and it is the responsibility of the leaders to favor the necessary context so that the honesty of the competitions in which we participate”, concludes the Sevilla letter.
The reactions of both Sevilla and Espanyol are the first at an institutional level by the clubs, but in the previous days other representatives of Spanish teams have expressed their opinion. “It’s not good for people to doubt the competition. Sport must always be clean. We all work to make it that way,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
“We don’t have all the data, we have to be cautious, let’s see where all this is going. It has also been a surprise for me. Referee reports are something common in football. The statistics that the referee who touches you has, some appreciation that they give us, in the last games how we have done, if they get more cards, reports that reach Aspiazu (second coach). In Barcelona I didn’t even look at them, and I didn’t even know they existed”, explained the coach of the Athletic, Ernesto Valverde, who was a Barça coach between 2017 and 2020.
The Atlético de Madrid coach, Diego Simeone, was also cautious: “I am not in the place to open an opinion. There are people trained to understand if that is right or wrong. And, from that, the people who have to take decisions based on a specific situation will resolve what is fairest for everyone”.