Bartomeu: 'Laporta quadrupled referee's salary'

Bartomeu gave an interview to ABC on February 17, about the issues surrounding the "Negreira suspicion", after Barca was found to have transferred money in installments to the DASNIL company owned by former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, with a total amount of up to 1.5 million USD from 2016 to 2018.

Bartomeu served as President of Barca from 2014-2020, and said he had never met Negreira - vice president of the Spanish Arbitration Council from 1994 to 2018. He only met Negreira's son - Javier Enrique - who managed DASNIL on paper. However, Bartomeu said that at the time he did not know Javier Enrique was Negreira's son.

Bartomeu added that the money Barca spent on DASNIL has existed since the time of president Josep Lluis Nunez - who led the team from 1978-2000. "When Laporta first became president of Barca in 2003, the amount Barca paid to this company was only nearly 150,000 euros ($160,000)," Bartomeu said. "By the time Sandro Rosell took over in 2010, the amount had far exceeded half a million euros. Laporta has quadrupled the referee's salary, and he should explain this."

Rosell was president of Barca from 2010-2014, before ceding the position to Bartomeu. And Laporta returns to this role in place of Bartomeu in 2021.

According to Bartomeu, Barca never demanded anything from the referee. The reports they receive from DASNIL through Javier Enrique, are not invoiced because they are delivered directly. The report usually includes a text and attached video, about Barca's teams and how to behave with referees properly.

Bartomeu cut these expenses in 2018, because CEO Oscar Grau thought they were too costly. This job is assigned to an internal department of the team. Then, Negreira called Bartomeu to complain, in March 2018 and April 2018, the Barca president said that he only stopped using the service with Javier Enrique, and did not mind Negreira.

In 2019, Negreira sent a fax to Barca, demanding to meet Bartomeu in person and threatening to make the relationship between the team and DASNIL public. According to Bartomeu, he immediately faxed the legal department, and has since heard from Negreira.

In the period 2016-2018, Barca went through a series of 76 matches without a penalty, in contrast they were awarded 16 penalties in La Liga. Bartomeu denied that the money spent on DASNIL was intended to help Barca avoid penalties. "Absolutely not," he said. "Because Mr. Negreira has no authority over referees."

According to the rules of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the Referee Council (CTA) has powers such as classifying referees based on skill, transferring referees between tournaments and assigning referees to task each match. . Bartomeu said that he had brought Negreira's threat to the RFEF for advice, but realized that the CTA was independent, so the Federation did not intervene.

Negreira worked as a referee in Spain from 1975-1992, then became the Vice President of the CTA. In 2018, Negreira no longer worked at CTA, at the same time DASNIL was cut off from consulting work for Barca.

The Barcelona prosecutor's office is investigating Mr. Negreira, and has not done the same with Barca. If they expand the investigation, Barca may be in danger of being relegated.