Real Madrid accuses Barcelona of sports corruption

The Negreira case continues to move through the courts, and the latest development was the extension of the investigation following a request from Real Madrid, which spoke openly about Barcelona’s multimillion-dollar payments to the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, along with other related payments that have emerged during the case.

In its filing, Real Madrid argued: “Given the general pattern in the statements made by referees and former referees, the system for monitoring and evaluating referees’ performance, in which Mr. Enríquez Negreira played a particularly prominent role, was arbitrary and corrupted, with referees’ promotions and professional careers depending solely on the will of those in charge of the CTA,” according to the document made public by Xavier Estrada Fernández.

It added: “Indeed, the incriminating evidence that already existed when the March 14, 2024 order was issued – Barcelona’s multimillion-dollar payments to the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees and the complete lack of any justification for them, among many others – together with the additional evidence that has been added as the police investigation progressed, more than justifies continuing these proceedings under the summary procedure and clearly supports describing a continued pattern of sporting corruption, rooted in criminal conduct and attributable to all those under investigation.”

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