Negreira case: No evidence found against Barcelona benefitting from referees

Barcelona have been handed a major boost in their fight against the investigation that has accused them of being a central part of the Enriquez Negreira payoff scandal.

The investigations had concluded that Barça had paid €7 million to Negreira, a former vice-president of the referee’s committee to gain additional refereeing insights and influence results.

However, as reported by EFE Deportes, the Prosecutor’s Office in Spain has seen no evidence that Barcelona’s alleged payoffs to Negreira led to result manipulation or influenced the result of any match in La Liga.

This should serve as a massive boost for a club that have been rocked by these allegations since the turn of the year. Barcelona, though, have remained remarkably quiet about the issue, opting for external investigations and internal operations over rhetorics.

The idea of the club was to make Joan Laporta appear before the press after he gathers all evidence and information. The club president himself has recently stated that Barça will soon come up with information and will be ready to “attack” as well as defend.

This comes just after Juan Roca, a former La Liga referee came out to speak in favour of Barcelona, suggesting that Negreira had not asked him to influence any decision in favour of the Catalan club.

There were also leaked documents that supported Barcelona and showed a clear picture of where the payments were headed.

Although Barcelona’s reputation has been tarnished by these allegations, the lack of evidence means that the Blaugrana are likely to escape this scandal unscathed.