The Prosecutor’s Office has requested that Luis Enrique Martínez and Ernesto Valverde, both former Barça coaches, testify as witnesses in the ‘Negreira case’, as explained by El País. The Asturian coached the Barça team between 2014 and until 2017, the year in which he took over the Camp Nou bench from Extremadura until he was fired at the beginning of 2020.
If their presence is confirmed in court, the two coaches will have to answer before the judge about the existence during their time at the Barça club of arbitration reports for which Barça paid more than 7 million euros between 2001 and 2018. Dasnil 95, the company owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees.
“I’m thinking…. We won the league with 14 points over second (Atlético) and 17 over third (Real Madrid). And we won the Cup with a 5-0 win over Sevilla in the final. I don’t think there’s much discussion about who was the best team that season”, Txingurri, now Athletic’s coach, explained after the defeat against Barça about the 2017-18 season, the last in which the Barça club had the services of the Negreiras.
Valverde hinted that Barça did not receive arbitration favors and previously spoke about the arbitration reports: “I don’t remember them, it’s something common in clubs. The statistics that the referee who touches you has, some appreciation that they make us, in the How have we done in recent games, if they get more cards… In Barcelona I didn’t even look at them, and I didn’t even know they existed”.
In his two and a half seasons with the blaugrana, Valverde won two Leagues, a Copa del Rey and a Super Cup. He was dismissed after losing the Super Cup in Arabia, but leaving the co-leading team in the League. For his part, Luis Enrique won a Champions League, two leagues, three Copas del Rey, a Club World Cup and a European Super Cup.
The Gijón coach, now without a team after leaving the Spanish soccer team once it was eliminated from the Qatar World Cup, has not given any interview since the Qatari tournament and therefore has not yet publicly commented on the ‘Negreira case’.
