Javi Enriquez Romero, the son of former Vice-President of the Referees Committee (CTA) Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira has reportedly come out and provided evidence against Barcelona and his father in the well-known Negreira case during the latest court hearing.
Son of Negreira reportedly provides evidence against Barcelona and his father
Former presidents of the Spanish football giants, Sandro Rosella and Josep Maria Bartomeu, appeared in court on Thursday. Additionally, Enrique Romero attended the court in Madrid as well to provide evidence in the case. However, his testimony didn't tally with what Joan Laporta, the current president of the club has provided. As per a report in El Español, the son of Negreira has stated that the relationship between his father and the La Liga club was known to him.
Following his testimony, which lasted for over an hour and 15 minutes, Enrique Romero revealed that the money made by his father through FC Barcelona was ‘unethical.’ As per the aforementioned source, Enrique Romero has said that he himself made €60k from the relationship.
On the other hand, as the investigation continued, Bartomeu revealed something else to the reporters outside the court. The 62-year-old said:
"It has been clarified that there were sports and refereeing advisory services, before and after matches, for both the first team and the reserve team, and that there was financial compensation to be paid for them.”
The ex-Catalan president continued:
"It has also become clear that Enriquez Negreira's departure from the Federation has nothing to do with the end of his son's employment when he stopped working for Barca in the first quarter of 2018. Therefore, the theory that said one thing was a consequence of the other has also been dispelled.”
Bartomeu, who began his presidential career in 2014 following the resignation of Rosell also said that they had the greatest team and “they have tried to tarnish Barça.” He told the reporters:
"We don't pay to influence, we pay for reports.”
Barcelona has been accused of corruption and is suspected to have paid over €7.5m in pay to Enriquez Negreira over a spell of 17 years to influence refereeing decisions. Arch rivals, Real Madrid, are one of the claimants to be included in the case, which has been ongoing for over two years. However, Laporta denied the accusations and stated that the payments were not made for consultancy on referees.