March 8 – Prosecutors are poised to charge Barcelona over the club’s alleged payments to a company that belonged to the former the vice president of Spain’s refereeing committee, according to Spanish media.
El Pais said its report was based on unnamed sources close to the matter.
Barca denies any wrongdoing and says the money paid to DASNIL 95, owned Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, between 2016-18, was for consultancy advice on referees and that it never tried to influence their decisions in games.
The payments were initially investigated as part of a tax probe into Dasnil95.
While the consultancy work payments, which included refereeing reports, are the only ones being investigated by the tax office, it has also been alleged that Barca paid Negreira over $7 million dating back to at least 2001.
La Liga cannot hand down sporting sanctions over the Negreira revelations because statute of limitations laws in Spain make it possible to punish clubs only within three years of any offences.
However, LaLiga president Javier Tebas said last week that Barca president Joan Laporta should resign if he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation regarding the payments.
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