The Barcelona Court prevents the Government from accusing Barça in the Negreira case

The Provincial Court of Barcelona has closed the door for the Government to bring the accusation in the Negreira case, in which it is investigated whether Barça paid more than 7 million euros to the vice president of the referees to have favorable treatment. In a resolution to which El Confidencial has had access, the judges reject that the Executive can appear in the case through the Higher Sports Council (CSD), which appealed to its character as an injured public institution. This resolution thus overturns an appeal presented in June, three months before the judge in the case expanded his investigations to an alleged crime of bribery because the number two of the arbitrators is a senior official of the Federation, a public institution..

The Twenty-First Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona responds to the appeal presented by the State Attorney's Office against the Court's decision not to admit the Government as an accusation. The Executive wanted to be a party to the Negreira case through the department headed by Víctor Francos, but the investigating judge – then substitute for the current magistrate Joaquin Aguirre – rejected it in May.. This coincided with the criteria of the Prosecutor's Office and Barça, who were also against the presence of the CSD in the investigation..

In its allegations, the Council appealed to its character as a public institution to be represented under the Sports Regulatory Law, which attributes to it powers to ensure the application of the Law.. The Prosecutor's Office responded that in this case the Government is not a victim of the crime under investigation. When the appeal was presented, in June, the Court had not yet expanded its investigations to the crime of bribery. At that time, what was discussed were crimes such as corruption between individuals in the sports field or unfair administration.

In this sense, the judges of the Provincial Court respond that if it were a crime of unfair administration, the injured party is the owner of the damaged assets and not a third party such as the CSD.. If there is a crime of corruption between individuals, those involved are the managers, referees or players involved in altering a sporting result..

The resolution, issued last week, concludes that the CSD's obligation is to establish which competitions are professional. He adds that the League – already in person – or the Royal Spanish Football Federation are responsible for managing the competitions and safeguarding fair play.. The obligation established by the Law for the Council to ensure the application of the Law has to do with the possibility of establishing sanctions within its scope, which is administrative, according to the Provincial Court.

The instructor of the Negreira case, Judge Joaquín Aguirre, issued an order in September which maintains that payments from FC Barcelona to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) José María Enríquez Negreira would indirectly constitute an alleged crime of bribery.. This type of crime does not require proving the adulteration of specific parties and contemplates more serious sentences than the crime of corruption between individuals that was until now attributed to those investigated.. Barça was automatically charged with this new type of criminal offense.

The head of the Court of Instruction Number 1 of Barcelona recalled that, when these payments were made, between 2001 and 2018, Negreira was vice president of the CTA of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), an “institution that has the character of a legal entity “public” when exercising functions delegated by the State for the regulation of a sport. That status, the judge points out, equated the referee with an official or authority and obliged him to be “impartial and have equitable treatment with all teams.”.