Can’t the biggest clubs of Europe win on their own footballing merits and not rely on cheating? Barcelona have come under massive fire these past few days as the club’s been accused of paying off the VP of a managing body over La Liga referees during the reign of Josep Bartomeu and other presidents.
This is a really messy, complicated, and rather ironic story from the most tumultuous, chaotic, and mind-numbingly dumb era of FC Barcelona.
So, to cut to the chase, Barcelona is being accused by the Spanish football federation of paying off Jose Negreira, a former Spanish first division referee and the former VP of Comité Técnico de Árbitros (CTA), from 2001 to 2018 through payments disguised as “consulting fees” as he had some influence over the management of La Liga referees through his role at CTA.
Like I said, this is a really convoluted case as it involves Barcelona secretly paying millions of euros to this firm to “scout” or “prospect” referees prior to their La Liga matches, even though former colleges of Jose Negreira have said that the guy had no control over what matches the referees would officiate. It really makes no sense why Barcelona would even hire this guy in the first place if what his colleagues said about him are true.
So, just from my own personal observations, it seems like Barcelona was conned out of millions in order to find favorable referees by a professional con artist. I would say that if what I theorized is true, it would be pretty ironic that the con artist got conned.
But, seeing how Josep Bartomeu and past Barca presidents were involved in this, it only makes sense that Barca was paying millions of euros for a phony, stupid scam that didn’t even help them in the slightest.
Nevertheless, this case has dominated the Spanish media (especially the Madrid based ones) as it was only revealed due to the ongoing investigation in Barca’s finances in the wake of Josep Bartomeu disastrous reign (2014-2020) in charge.
Now, La Liga president Javier Tebas, who is also be one of the most insufferable men in football, has already come out and said La Liga will NOT be punishing Barcelona as the statute of limitations for such an allegation have passed. Still, the Spanish football federation has not ruled out punishing the club yet, but I’m not sure what they could levy against Barcelona other than hefty fines.
But how does Barcelona’s damaged reputation recover from this latest blow? It appears to be proven that the club was dishing out payments to Negreira during the specific timeframe I mentioned above, which can only mean that they were seeking the help/guidance of an active official in the refereeing profession. And, which should come as no surprise to anyone, is highly unethical and potentially illegal.
This club truly is a mess as even though it’s heading towards its first La Liga title in four years, allegations such as this have continued to plague what was once considered the most pristine and prestigious club in all of Europe.
Regardless, this is yet another horrible look for Barcelona in what was supposed to be a year of them returning to their glorious footballing past.
It’s true they are doing fantastic in La Liga as they currently sit 8 points clear of Real Madrid on top of La Liga, but their early Champions League exit and this latest financial scandal is really damaging all of the hard work Xavi and his players have done to restore Barca’s reputation.
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