Latest reports reveal Negreira gave referees gifts of tickets, hams, toasters...

In the latest turn down the road of the Negreira case, Spanish newspaper El Mundo has revealed that Enríquez Negreira used part of the money paid by Barcelona to buy gifts for referees. The report claims that he unsuccessfully attempted to pass off these presents as company expenses. They were all rejected by the tax inspectors.

There comes a certain point when one is sufficiently tired or stressed that event get met with nothing other than laughter: a coping mechanism, I presume. Well, it is at this point that the case, if we are to indeed draw parallels with my previous sentence, goes from controversial and complicated to strange and surreal: anger turns to hands-thrown-in-the-air-in-amazement for us all.

To begin with, Negreira reportedly spent €4,460 on personalised red and yellow cards to distribute among referees in the RFEF, each with their corresponding “card holders”. But did they really want a present that reminded them of work? It’s a little bit like giving a milkman a pint of semi-skimmed for Christmas. Each to their own.

Negreira’s strange summer gifts

Did you think the list of gifts had stopped there? Oh no. Ham to the value of €10,000 was bought as well as plenty of match tickets for which Negreira counted as his invited guests, and for which he assured he was reimbursed.

It is said that Negreira also spent money from the club on summer gifts for his colleagues such as “beach spades, umbrellas and cooler bags, corkscrews, toasters, sandwich makers, blankets, trousers and laser pointer pens”.

Now we’re talking. I don’t know about personalised yellow cards, but who doesn’t want a laser pen and a toastie maker? For the grown-ups among us, Negreira also reportedly spent over €2000 on meals in Madrid and Barcelona for referees, as well as buying “desserts, wines, liquors and cheese”.