Suspected of arbitration corruption since Wednesday, for facts dating back to between 2016 and 2018, is Barça already off the hook? In any case, the president of La Liga Javier Tebas made a statement to this effect this Thursday, on the sporting level, because the limitation period for possible infringements concerning the possible payments of the Catalan club to former referees, for whom justice opened an investigation, is exceeded. “First of all, we have to get this straight. We have already checked, and it is impossible that there are sporting disciplinary sanctions, ”explained Javier Tebas in a video posted on La Liga social networks. It also details that the facts occurred in 2018 and years earlier, but “the limitation period for this type of sanction is three years”.
“Criminal jurisdiction is something else. A court is in the process of investigating the facts and will determine whether there may be a possible offense of corruption between individuals, ”added Javier Tebas. Spanish radio Cadena Ser revealed on Wednesday that the Spanish public prosecutor’s office was investigating the company of a former head of a Spanish referee committee, who allegedly received 1.4 million euros from FC Barcelona for an alleged offense of private corruption. The prosecution confirmed that an investigation was underway into the matter and was extended last November, without giving further details.
“Such services should never have taken place”
According to Cadena Ser, the investigation began after the Spanish tax authorities identified irregularities in the taxes paid by the company Dasnil 95, owned by José Maria Enriquez Negreira, vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). of the Spanish Football Federation from 1994 to 2018. According to Spanish radio, this company received 1.4 million euros between 2016 and 2018 to advise the club on arbitration matters. The last invoice would date from June 2018, when Enriquez Negreira left the arbitration body.
Javier Tebas adds that La Liga will wait for the end of the investigation to find out what the next steps will be in this new possible scandal affecting Barça. If the Spanish prosecution opens a trial, “we will have to present ourselves as a private prosecutor. And if there is no trial, all of this will be closed”. “Ethically and morally, this kind of thing cannot happen in Spanish football,” said the La Liga boss. “With what we read in the media, it is obvious that such services should never have taken place, neither in fact, nor at these amounts,” he concluded.