Barca asked to 'help' with VAR
Negreira served as vice-president of the Council of Referees (CTA) of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) from 1994 to 2018. The Barcelona prosecutor's office is investigating Negreira, but he did not appear in court because of dementia. Lawyers have submitted medical evidence proving that the former referee had the disease since 2018.
Negreira's company, Dasnil 95, was canceled by Josep Maria Bartomeu - then the president of Barca - in 2018. Since then, Negreira has sent at least two burofax to Barca, the most recent of which was a request. The Camp Nou owner continued to pay even though the contract was cancelled.
On March 7, El Mundo discovered new evidence that Negreira had contacted Barca in 2020, promoting a desire to provide expertise in VAR - a technology that was introduced two years ago.
"I can help you with VAR. If interested, contact me," Negreira wrote in a letter to the Camp Nou owner.
Barca are said to not respond to Negreira's offer. But the information that El Mundo published made the scandal more hot, especially after the news that Barca was one of the clubs that benefited the most from VAR this season.
According to Marca, Barca has been facing charges from the Spanish Ministry of Justice of "persistent corruption" in business - an allegation that came into effect from the 2010 criminal reform and includes fraud in the field. sports - due to payments to Negreira. This complaint will be transferred to the Barcelona court after collecting the conclusions from the National Guard during the investigation.
On February 15, Cadena SER reported that the Barcelona prosecutor's office was investigating Negreira's Dasnil 95 company. The investigation revealed that he received money from Barca three times, about $ 570,000 in 2016, $ 580,000 in 2017 and $ 340,000 in 2018, a total of $ 1.5 million and were not included in the financial statements of the team.
In a press conference on March 7, current President Joan Laporta confirmed that Barca had never paid the referee and had never intended to do this. He added: "There is a campaign to harm Barca's interests. It is a campaign to control the club. La Liga does not accept Barca's refusal to sign CVC."
Laporta mentioned that La Liga reached a joint venture agreement with the International Monetary Fund (CVC) based in Luxembourg in August 2021. Accordingly, CVC will immediately pump La Liga $ 3.2 billion, in exchange for 10% of the rights to control television and other commercial rights of the tournament for up to 50 years. However, Barca opposed this deal.
