The former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees José María Enríquez Negreira and his son recommended in May 2016 to FC Barcelona that they “take great care” of their relationship with the referee Jesús Gil Manzano, since due to his youth and projection he would direct “important matches for many seasons “. This is stated in one of the reports on referees that the Negreiras prepared for the Barça club in exchange for millionaire amounts, according to the summary, to which EFE has had access, in which it also states that Barcelona requested arbitration reports from the Negreiras ” over rival RM”.
As stated in the summary, in one of their reports, prepared in May 2016 on the occasion of a derby between FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol for which Gil Manzano had been appointed, the Negreiras highlighted that he was the referee “with the greatest projection of Spanish football”, although at that time, despite the fact that he was well valued, his level was “simply good”. “It is also interesting to take great care of the Club’s relationship with him due to his high level and youth. He will referee important matches for many seasons. He is friendly, smiling and simple,” the report pointed out.
Likewise, the Negreria recommended that, in the face of the derby, he be treated with “attention” and provided with “comfortable arbitration.” “He has a clean, aesthetic style and is far from authoritarian gestures. He will maintain a serious and distant attitude, making rigorous arbitration,” the report specified, in which they highlighted his “great personality.”
Before the VAR application, the report warned that Gil Manzano made “errors on penalties by default”, that he was “too rigorous” with positional offsides and that his assistants made “numerous errors” with offsides.
In another report, the Negreiras analyzed Mateu Lahoz’s type of refereeing, who they highlighted as “continually looking for personal treatment with the players”, since “he needs them to believe him”, which sometimes led him to “give too many explanations “.
“He continues to play with intensity. He does not hesitate to admonish the simulations. He will not be fooled by simulations, which he admonishes, and stops penalizing fouls if they are exaggerated. The struggles in the area are usually whistled in favor of the defense,” the report warned. .
The report on Lahoz also recommended that players follow all plays “however clear the fouls may seem” as they can turn into counterattacks if not whistled. “It is recommended to play noble but aggressive and make more fouls than usual,” he pointed out.
“He treats each player differently and each footballer should know how to treat him. It’s easy for Jordi Alba not to allow any protest or to immediately admonish Piqué or Mascherano for tackles. It’s also common for him to stop pointing out fouls on Neymar. With Messi is better now,” he underlined.
The summary also contains reports on the referees Fernando Teixeira Vitienes -on the occasion of a Barça-Elche game in August 2014- who warned that he avoided admonishing for tackles or pushing if the game allowed it, that he would not award a penalty if it was not very clear and that instead he would not hesitate to admonish protests with “obvious” gestures towards him or his assistants.
Another of the referees analyzed by the reports was Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, who had to direct Barça on a visit to the Deportivo de la Coruña field in April 2016, who he described as “very close and simple in dealing with the people”, who dedicated himself to “easy whistling” and who only pointed out “what was very clear to him”.
In this report, the Negreiras remarked that the CTA had recently given instructions to the referees to distinguish between the natural actions of the game, such as collisions, ball tackles and fortuitous hands, and voluntary actions, such as grabs, untimely tackles and elbows. , before which they would be “rigorous” until the end of the season.
Regarding the referee Fernandez Borbalán, the Negreiras remarked that they were in a good physical and mental moment, which allowed him to “relate calmly” with the players, that he would try to avoid conflicts with the footballers, and that he was normally “permissive” with small fouls, “what harms Barça”.
FC Barcelona also requested arbitration reports on “the rival RM” (which coincides with the initials of Real Madrid). Within the summary, the document appears in a folder of evidence seized at the home of the former director of FC Barcelona, ??José Contreras, who died on Christmas Day 2022.
It is a single page, typed and with some notes by hand, which is headed by the words “Work to be done” and which its author closes with a last sentence in parentheses indicating who the recipient of the document is: “( Confidential to: Mr. Contreras)”.
The document describes almost a dozen services to be provided by whoever performs them and the first to appear on the list is “videos of the Barça players regarding the referee’s decisions, so that the referee is not contrary to Barça”.
The author of the text also requests videos of the virtues and defects of the rival teams of FC Barcelona and their players. The document specifies that all arbitration reports must be provided to Barça “anonymously” and that “both the billing and the reports will be delivered to Mr. Contreras by hand or to whomever is determined.”
After detailing that the videos must be delivered weekly, the document adds the reference to the RM: “Monitoring of arbitration decisions to the rival team RM”.
The other element of the document that stands out is a handmade annotation at the height of the heading in which, without contextualizing, it can be read: “50,000 – 10,000. See the referee’s car or not depending on the airport or hotel car” (sic) .
