Spanish public prosecutors have requested that former Barça coaches Luis Enrique Martínez and Ernesto Valverde testify as witnesses in the Negreira case, judicial sources have informed the EFE agency. The prosecution service wants the two coaches to be summonsed to testify so that they can confirm or deny whether reports were produced on the profile of referees among the evaluations that José María Enríquez Negreira, who was then vice-president of Spanish football's Technical Committee of Referees, allegedly drew up for the FC Barcelona club. It is alleged that Negreira received 1.4 million euros from the Catalan club for his services between 2016 and 2018, part of a total of 7 million euros that he was supposedly paid by Barça between 2001 and 2018.
As reported by El País, the question over referee profile reports is included in the complaint that prosecutors lodged last Friday against Barça at the Barcelona court of investigation number 1 for alleged corruption in the payments to Enríquez Negreira. The complaint is addressed to the club as a legal entity, but also to its former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees and to former Blaugrana managers Òscar Grau and Albert Soler. The Spanish prosecution service accuses them of crimes of corruption between individuals in the field of sport, disloyal administration and document falsification.
Valverde, on Negreira
Beyond the prosecution's accusations, it has now become known that, in terms of witnesses, it has also requested that Ernesto Valverde and Luis Enrique, ex-coaches of Barça, be put on the stand. In fact, on Sunday, Valverde, who is currently manager of the Athletic Club of Bilbao, was asked about the Negreira case in the press conference following the match that his club played against Barça. In particular, he was asked whether, thanks to Negreira's influence, the La Liga title for the 2017-2018 season was gifted to FC Barcelona dishonestly, when he was coach. To respond, Valverde went to the newspaper library: "I'm thinking... we won the league with 14 points difference from the second place team and 17 or 19 above the third team, I don't remember. And we won the Copa del Rey with a 5-0 against Sevilla in the final". "I don't think there was much discussion about who was the better team that season," he added.
What does the prosecution's complaint say?
In its accusation, the public prosecutor states that Barça verbally agreed with Enríquez Negreira to take actions so that the referees would favour the blaugrana club in the matches they played. "Under presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barça reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with the denounced Enríquez Negreira, so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA and in exchange for money, he would carry out tendentious actions to favour Barcelona in the decision-making of the referees in the matches played by the club, and thus in the results of the competitions; referees whose designation for each match of the official Spanish competitions at state and professional level is determined by the CTA", the complaint states.
Spanish government will also enter the case
This Tuesday, it was also known that the Spanish government will act against Barça with its prosecution in the Negreira case. This has been confirmed by José Manuel Franco, president of Spain's National Sports Council, to network Telecinco, where he stated that "when the complaint is accepted for hearing", that will be the time when they will be involved "in the case". Franco aserted that they will take pursue the case "with the full force" of the law and that they will "follow due process".