The judge of Barcelona Silvia López Mejías has admitted for processing this Wednesday the complaint filed by the prosecution against FC Barcelona as a legal person and its former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartemeu for the payment of millions in amounts to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José Maria Enriquez Negreira, in exchange for, presumably, favor the Barcelona club in the decisions of the referees in the matches. The judicial process also includes the former arbitration leader and the ex-executives of the Barcelona club Óscar Grau and Albert Soler. The magistrate, in addition, has accepted the complaint of the Catalan arbitrator Xavier Estradawhich will be processed in the same procedure, and has entrusted the investigation to the Civil Guard in order to determine “the reason” for these disbursements. The League will exercise the popular accusation.
The judge maintains in the order that the facts could constitute the crimes of a continuous crime of corruption between individuals in the sports field, another of unfair administration and a third of documentary falsification, as argued by the prosecution, while leaving open the possibility of imputing more people who would be involved in the plot and who would be executives from the time of Sandro Rosell at the head of the Barca. The togada has required the Civil Guard to identify who held the positions of general director, CEO or executive director, financial director, treasurer or head of the economic area of the Barça club at that time.
patrimonial report
In this sense, it specifies that “the police investigation cannot be understood as concluded in order to determine the reason or work” for which the millionaire payments were made now under suspicion to two companies of Enríquez Negreira (Dasnil 95 and Nilsad), as well as “the destination” of the funds collected by them, since the Tax Agency “has not appreciated an increase in assets”. For this reason, the togada deems it “pertinent” to carry out a patrimonial investigation of Enríquez Negreira and “of his closest environment.” The judge has left the son of the former arbitration leader, Javier Enríquez Romero, out of the process, understanding that the management of the Dasnil company was exercised “exclusively” by his father and did not collect payroll from them. When he has all the documentation, he will summon those investigated.
The order fully includes the prosecution’s complaint and states that, through Rosell and Bartomeu, Barça reached and maintained a verbal agreement “strictly confidential” with Enríquez Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees and “in exchange for money” carry out actions tending to favor the club in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the team, and “thus in the results of the competitions”. The resolution reflects that the appointment of the referees corresponds to said committee, a body that is in charge, influences, of the “evaluations” for the promotions and demotions of the collegiate category, as well as the proposal of candidates for international meetings.
For this work, the former arbitration leader, through his companies, drew bills that were presented to FC Barcelona for collection, “without them responding to any actual advisory benefits or services”, maintains the prosecution. Payments made by Barça to Enríquez Negreira from 2001 to 2018, during his vice presidency at the CTA, exceeded the €7.3 million according to the history of invoiced amounts.
for eight years
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The investigation will focus on the years that, according to the prosecution and now the court itself, do not consider prescribed, that is, between December 2010, when the crime of corruption between individuals in the sports field came into force, and May 2018, when FC Barcelona put an end to disbursements. In that period, the Barça club paid Enriquez Negreira around almost 5 million euros.
The figure must be specified if the support judge of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona requires the Barcelona club and the former arbitration leader copy of invoices that accredit the operations carried out from 2011 to 2014, during the Rosell’s mandate, and that have been quantified, but not in detail, at more than two million euros. The prosecution’s complaint only details invoices for 2.9 million euros between 2014 and 2018. The concepts were generic, such as “technical video advice” or “recording of matches or viewing of Spanish teams in the European competitions”, among others.