UEFA could also sanction the women’s Barça and leave it without the Champions League

BarcelonaA possible UEFA sanction to Barça for the Negreira case could go further than to leave the first men’s football team without European competition. The sanction, should it occur, would be for the club. Therefore, the disciplinary consequences would also affect the other teams of the Blaugrana entity that play in UEFA competitions: the women’s first team and the men’s youth football team, and futsal. This is what several lawyers specializing in sports law have explained to the ARA. “The sanction would be for the club. Therefore, it would affect all the Barça teams that compete in UEFA competitions,” says a lawyer who has worked for the highest European football body. “You can’t differentiate between some teams and others from the same club,” says Toni Roca, lawyer and CEO of Himnus Football Lawyers, along the same lines. Lawyer Marc Remolà, partner of Omnium Legal Abogados, also interprets the regulations in this way: “The regulations do not distinguish between teams. Since the conduct is not imputed for a specific infringement by a team in a certain competition, UEFA could determine to extend it to all the club’s teams that participate in their competitions”.

Article 50.3 of the UEFA statutes, which came into force in 2007, dictates that “the admission to a UEFA competition of member federations or clubs involved directly or indirectly in any activity aimed at fixing or influencing the result of a national or international match may be rejected with immediate effect, without prejudice to any possible disciplinary measure”. Xavier-Albert Canal, a lawyer who between 2003 and 2010 was part of the Barça Disciplinary Committee and who is currently the institutional manager of the rugby section of the Blaugrana club, explains the situation: “Barça is a single entity which practices various sports disciplines. For football it is affiliated to the Spanish Football Federation, which belongs to UEFA. UEFA organizes competitions in which clubs affiliated to the state federations participate.” In this sense, he explains that “it would seem that, being a single entity, a possible financial sanction would be paid by it as a single entity and that, by the same rule, in the event of exclusion, it would be from all UEFA competitions”. But he points out that the club chaired by Joan Laporta could, in any case, “defend itself” by arguing “that the Negreira case only affects the first team”.

A similar consideration is made by the lawyer close to UEFA consulted by this newspaper. “UEFA has the ability to limit the sanction if it is shown that certain teams of the club have not been favored by the situation.” On the other hand, Toni Roca is very forceful in his interpretation: “You can’t make a sanction on the letter that affects a certain team of the club. There is no possibility of getting away with it in case UEFA sanctions”. ARA has asked the Blaugrana association if it is studying this possible sanction for the women’s first team, the men’s youth team and futsal. The answer has been: “There is no record of speculation about scenarios that have not occurred.”

What route does a possible UEFA sanction take?

At the moment, apart from the criminal investigation by the court of inquiry number 1 of Barcelona due to the payments that Barça made to the vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees Enríquez Negreira, UEFA has opened a file against the Catalan club for the same case At the moment, the body is carrying out “an investigation into a possible violation of UEFA’s legal framework”. On the other hand, its president, Aleksander Ceferin, said in an interview with the Slovenian media Team which, in his opinion, “was one of the most serious situations” he had seen in the world of football. Marc Remolà, one of the lawyers consulted by the ARA, believes that “it is unlikely that the UEFA sanction will succeed because there is an open criminal procedure and therefore there is no conviction”. Thus, he adds that he sees it as very unsustainable that “imposing a sanction such as exclusion from European competitions, with the economic repercussions that would be so great, just because of what could happen”. In addition, he remembers that “the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) should have the last word”.

Toni Roca’s view is quite different, explaining that “UEFA’s criterion is not the same as that of the criminal courts, which need total certainty”. While ordinary justice needs 100% certainty to issue a guilty verdict, Toni Roca says that in the field of UEFA (which has the power to leave a club without playing its competitions regardless of what the courts say) the certainty is between 70% and 90%. “Even if it is not proven that Barça paid the referees to be favoured, UEFA can sanction him”. In this regard, he points out that “UEFA’s sanction on Barça would be for next season or, at the very least, for the following one if the TAS was requested for an injunction. On the other hand, the criminal sentence could take between three and four years”. Next Monday at 11 a.m. the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, will hold a press conference to explain the Negreira case.