Barcelona will face the media to explain the payments made to referee chief Enriquez Negreira
Spanish giants Barcelona are set to reveal the truth about the “Caso Negreira” refereeing scandal that has plagued them over the course of the past two months.
Barcelona were found to have paid over €7 million to the former vice president of LaLiga’s body of referees, Enriquez Negreira, between 2001 and 2018. Since then, speculation has flourished regarding the reasons for the payments.
Barcelona claim Negreira payments were made for legitimate purposes
Barcelona claim that they paid Negreira to help scout referees and local talent in order to “level the playing field” between themselves and Real Madrid, but everyone outside the club has put it down to the Catalans buying referees’ favours in LaLiga.
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Spanish prosecutors have started proceedings against Barcelona, accusing them of continued corruption in sports — a charge that the club has vehemently denied.
The case has caused further strain between Barcelona and LaLiga with the club asking for the league’s chairperson Javier Tebas to resign from his role for allegedly supplying prosecutors with false information regarding the case.
The “Caso Negreira” scandal has also put Barcelona at risk of being kicked out of the UEFA Champions League after President Aleksander Ceferin called the Barcelona's case “one of the most serious” in soccer.
Barcelona set to defend legitimacy of Negreira payments in press conference
Media and regulatory bodies have called on Barcelona to face the media regarding the scandal, asking for a true picture of the dealings between the Catalan club and referee chief Negreira and the five-time UCL winners have always maintained that they would explain the details of the case in due time.
Now, they say the time to face the media has finally come, with Barcelona president Joan Laporta set to hold a press conference to address the Negreira case on Monday, April 17th by 10:00 am WAT.
During the press conference, Laporta will be expected to give an explanation for the payments to Negreira and also answer questions from reporters regarding the case.
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