According to Spanish news agency EFE, the court handling ‘Caso Negreira’ has decided to indict FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta for bribery, sports corruption, unfair administration, and forgery.
The ‘Caso Negreira’ case comprises total payments of around $7.7 million (€7.3 million) made by Barcelona to the former Vice-President of the Technical Committee of Referees, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, and his son over an 18-year period under investigation.
Barca were charged with “continued corruption in the sports field” in April as UEFAEFA +0.1% opened up their investigation in quick succession.
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The European football governing body decided that the Catalans should be allowed to compete in the 2023/2024 edition of its elite competition the Champions League, but reserved the right to administer further punishment down the line if fresh evidence emerged.
In September, the judge overseeing the case, Judge Joaquin Aguirre, recommended that the charge of continued corruption in the sports field should be changed to one of bribery as Negreira was a public figure at the time
This suggestion was made in a court order obtained by El Periodico. Later, two former Barcelona presidents, Sandro Rossell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as two ex-club employees, were accused with bribery, sports corruption, unfair administration, and commercial document fraud.
El Periodico, a Catalan newspaper, obtained a court order detailing how Aguirre agreed to indict current Barca leader Joan Laporta for the same crimes after concluding that payments made to Negreira from 2008 to 2010 during Laporta’s first reign constituted “continued bribery.”
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