2023-09-28 11:50:09
The noose is tightening around FC Barcelona. This Thursday, Spanish justice has just ordered a search of the premises of the Spanish football arbitration department as part of the investigation into an arbitration scandal involving the Catalan club.
“The investigating court number 1 of Barcelona today ordered a search of the headquarters of the Technical Committee of Referees”, as part of this case called Negreira, in reference to the name of the former high official of the arbitration at the center of the investigation, indicated the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia in a press release.
Bartomeu and Rosell in the viewfinder
FC Barcelona and some of its leaders were indicted on March 10 by the Spanish courts for “corruption”, “breach of trust” and “forgery of commercial documents” in the case of suspicious money payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, former senior official of Spanish arbitration, also prosecuted.
These proceedings, decided by the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office, target Barça as a legal entity, as well as Josep Maria Bartomeu, head of the club between 2014 and 2020, and Sandro Rosell, president between 2010 and 2014. Oscar Grau and Albert Soler , members of Bartomeu’s former team, are also being prosecuted.
Seized by the tax authorities on possible irregularities in the payment of taxes of a company belonging to Enriquez Negreira, the prosecution opened a preliminary investigation in spring 2022 in order to verify the motive and framework of these money payments.
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