Madrid (EFE). Real Madrid has submitted a document to UEFA addressed to its disciplinary bodies, requesting that they adopt disciplinary and restorative measures against Barcelona regarding the ‘Negreira case’, considering that there is “relevant evidence” of the existence of payments that were “prolonged over time, opaque, and lacking any verifiable justification.”
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The white club, in a statement, asserts that the case named after José María Enríquez Negreira, who was the vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, represents “a systemic risk of maximum gravity for the integrity of the competitions” by demonstrating that there was “a structure of undue influence over the refereeing body, incompatible with the essential principles of competitive equality, neutrality, impartiality, and unpredictability of the sporting result”.
Asks UEFA to resume the disciplinary proceedings
Given the gravity of the case, it calls on UEFA to immediately resume the disciplinary proceedings it opened in March 2023, considering it “unacceptable that this situation has dragged on over time, as its persistence seriously compromises the credibility of football, its institutions, and its leaders.”
“It demands a firm, exemplary, and immediate response in the sporting sphere, independent of the outcome of the ongoing judicial proceedings,” adds the Madrid entity regarding the “relevant evidence” of the existence of payments that were “prolonged over time, opaque, and lacking any verifiable justification.”
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The presentation of the dossier was announced by Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, in the press conference he gave on May 12 to denounce what he defined as “the greatest case of corruption in the history of football”.
Real Madrid considers it pertinent that UEFA, in the exercise of its own, autonomous and independent competence, adopt “the disciplinary and restorative measures that are appropriate in order to guarantee the integrity, transparency and proper functioning of the competitions”.
«Without this implying, in any case, replacing the function of the State’s judicial bodies or anticipating a criminal qualification of the facts. In this sense, Real Madrid, having appeared in the ongoing criminal proceedings as a private prosecutor, will exercise, as it has been doing since the beginning, the actions that correspond at each procedural moment», the statement continues.
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The ‘Negreira case’
The ‘Negreira case’ broke out in February 2023 and its investigation revealed that Barcelona made payments worth 7.3 million euros to Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018, coinciding with the period in which he was the vice president of the CTA.
The matter is in the hands of a Barcelona court, before which the defense for the 80-year-old former refereeing official has alleged that he suffers from dementia, a request that has been supported by a medical examination he underwent last March.
In March 2023, UEFA opened an investigation into Barcelona for a “potential violation of its legal framework” after legal proceedings began in Spain and, although the procedure was suspended months later, it can be resumed ex officio.
Real Madrid reaffirms its commitment to “defending the essential values of sport” and guarantees that it will continue to promote “whatever actions are necessary to ensure that events of this nature do not go unpunished”.
Florentino Pérez detailed in his appearance that the report addressed to the highest European football governing body would contain 500 pages.
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“Let’s be serious and have UEFA step in, because it cannot allow the most important football to be in the hands of corruption paid for 20 years (…) I have only won seven ‘Champions’ and seven Leagues, when I could have won fourteen, but the others were stolen from me,” denounced the Madrid president.
