‘Would have been relegated’… Javier Tebas reveals the extent of penalties Barcelona could have incurred for the Negreira case | OneFootball

Spanish football has been going through a crisis as there has been a lot of noise about the quality of refereeing in the last few days, and despite Hansi Flick’s sympathetic stance towards the referees, some of the Blaugrana players have also voiced their discontent about some decisions that did not go their way in the last few games.

The Catalan club has also been involved in one of the more notable controversies regarding refereeing in the last few years, i.e., the Negreira case, in which some former Barcelona officials were accused of corruption in collusion with the former vice president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee, José María Enríques Negreira.

Although the possibility of the Blaugranes getting a sporting penalty, in this case, is now extinguished, the Catalans can still see themselves penalized in ordinary courts. As Mundo Deportivo has reported, this was the viewpoint of the President of La Liga, Javier Tebas, as he attended a press event and made some comments on this case.

The highest league official highlighted the severe penalties Barcelona could have faced in this matter:

“Sports corruption falls within the criminal domain, and there is no statute of limitations there…That does not mean referees were bought. We believe the money Negreira received was intended to influence promotions and relegations, and that constitutes sports corruption. That has not expired.”

“Then there is the sporting domain. When the facts were discovered, three years had already passed, so it was already time-barred in the sporting domain. If we could take action, of course, we would, imposing the appropriate sanctions. If it had not expired, Barcelona would have been relegated—I said that at the time.”

The court in which the case is being proceeded has already ruled out investigations about bribery to referees, but it was also found that Barcelona had actually paid a total of €7.5 million to the involved officials for refereeing advice. For now, it remains to be seen how this matter will pan out in the courts, but hopefully, the Catalan club will come clean out of it.