In Madrid, the Negreira case has again crossed from Spain’s domestic institutions into UEFA’s orbit, with Real Madrid supplying European football’s governing body with a vast dossier connected to the investigation involving Barcelona and José María Enríquez Negreira.
The news from the club
UEFA has confirmed that it has received a substantial volume of documents from Real Madrid concerning the ongoing scrutiny of FC Barcelona’s relationship with Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish Football Federation’s Technical Committee of Referees.
The papers have also been passed to UEFA’s Ethics and Disciplinary inspectors, who will consider them within their existing review. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez had said on 12 May that the club would send a detailed report to UEFA. The submission was delivered on 17 June and contains 50,000 pages.
Real Madrid has already entered the Spanish legal proceedings, seeking a full examination of payments totalling €8.4 million made between 2001 and 2018 to Negreira’s companies for refereeing reports.
The affair emerged publicly on 15 February 2023, after an investigation into alleged irregularities in Negreira’s tax declarations became known. The Spanish criminal process remains central to UEFA’s own position.
UEFA’s existing investigation
UEFA opened a preliminary inquiry in 2023 and has kept it open, judging that the Spanish court case must be resolved first because it falls under a higher legal jurisdiction. Barcelona has previously supplied the information requested by UEFA, which appointed two inspectors to examine the matter.
The European body is not starting a separate case as a result of Real Madrid’s dossier, nor has it stepped away from the matter. Instead, the new material has been added to the file already under assessment.
Any disciplinary sanction against Barcelona, including possible exclusion from UEFA competitions, would depend on Spanish justice establishing that sporting corruption took place. Barcelona’s position is understood to be calm after UEFA chose to incorporate Madrid’s documents into the existing procedure rather than launch a new disciplinary process.
