As we know, football is no stranger to scandal, and right now Barcelona are caught in one that could have a huge impact on the legacy of Barcelona and La Liga.
The Negreira case is very similar to the Serie A Calciopoli scandal that happened in 2003–2004. which not only saw Juventus lose their top position but also their demotion to the Serie B, 2nd division. It is a controversial matter, but let's analyze it with all the facts and figures available.
To explain it in layman's terms, it is a case about FC Barcelona paying Negreira money, so he would brief the players of FC Barcelona on how to deal with different referees, like what instigates them and how to react on fouls in correspondence to a referee in the match. It was reported that between 2016 and 2018, Barcelona paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira to inform their players how to react to referees that were there in the match. In the beginning, it was only about dealing with referees, but later it was found that Jose Negreira was also the Vice President of Spanish football federation’s Referee Technical Committee
This raised the suspicion that Barcelona were paying him so that they could get officials of their own liking who would favour them with unfair decisions. Barcelona was chastised in the press and accused of having officials on their payroll.
According to El Pais, the news outlet that first broke this news, Negreira delivered a parcel to the Barcelona office every time the club played a La Liga or Copa del Rey game.
The parcel had a written report which talked about different aspects on the behavior of the refrees, like how to they respond to fouls and how they react to players who constantly argue with them so that they players would do opposite of that.
Negreira has claimed he was paid for ‘technical work so that there would be no mistakes by the players while communicating with the officials and there would also be no controversial decisions that went against Barcelona.' He said he was paid around €1.4 million in total.
Barca has addressed the issue on their own media channels and communicated to the fans that they need to stay calm. They are still maintaining the stance that they have done nothing wrong. Joan Laporta, the president of FC Barcelona, has said this is a fishing expedition by Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, and the Spanish press, who have an agenda against Barcelona and want to damage the good name of FC Barcelona. FC Barcelona are saying they will conduct their own investigation.
They have also promised that they would help with the investigation and make sure that right every thing is available for the prosecutors .
"I have to tell the members, first of all, to need to be very calm," Rafael Yuste, the club’s vice president.
It is very early to be talking about punishments. A detailed and focused investigation will now be done to find the results and conclude whether this was just a referees analysis or whether it was a corruption scam run by Bacrelona to help them win matches.
It’s also important to note that Barcelona are now currently under investigation—Javier Tebas, president of La Liga.
Should Barça be convicted in that investigation and all the charges against them be proven to be true, there would be severe punishments, which would impact Barcelona in a huge way.
Barcelona could get punishment like being stripped of all their titles that they won in recent years, but they would also be fined millions of dollars. which would impact Barcelona's finances, which are already in a very tough position, and even more so if they get demoted to the second division, which means all their star players would be able to leave, which will again be a huge problem for FC Barcelona.
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