Barcelona accused of paying over £1million to an ex-LaLiga referees chief for ‘neutral’ treatment and advice on how to adapt to each official’

Barcelona have been accused of paying more than 1million across three seasons to the former vice president of LaLiga referees in a major corruption scandal.

The Catalan side are currently top of the standings in LaLiga and are busy preparing to face Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday.

In a report, which was first released on Cadena SER radio program Que t’hi jugues, it has been alleged that Barcelona paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, through his company DASNIL 95, ?1.4m (1.2m) during Josep Bartomeu’s presidency.

It is claimed that Negreira, who would go on to become the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees after retiring, was paid ?532,728 (473,340) in 2016, ?541,752 (481,358) in 2017, and then a further ?318,200 (282,915) in 2018.

All those payments are alleged by the prosector’s office to have been made by Barcelona to DASNIL 95, with a report by Spain’s Tax Agency, which is investigating Negreira’s company, and seen by Diario AS, claiming they wanted ‘to make sure that no refereeing decisions were made against, that is, “that everything was neutral”.

Having already testified, Negreira and his son Javier Enrquez Romero have reportedly denied that Barcelona ever received any preferential treatment from referees.

In his testimony, according to Cadena SER, Negreira claimed that his alleged agreement with Barcelona was to see him recommend how their players should behave in game with referees.

It is claimed he tailored his advice depending on the referee they were assigned for upcoming matches. That is, what they could and should not do depending on the referee designated for the matches

One issue that has arisen is that the Tax Agency has attested that there is no documentation currently in their possession that details any such relationship of consultancy between Negreira and Barcelona.