Will Barcelona be punished by UEFA over Negreira scandal? Aleksander Ceferin reacts to ‘extremely serious’ accusations
- Payments made to former match officials chief
- Rival clubs taking the matter to court
- Europe's governing body looking into the matter
WHAT HAPPENED? Payments made by the Liga giants to Enriquez Negreira – the former vice-president of the Referees Committee in Spain – between 2001 and 2018 have become the subject of a potential corruption scandal, with rival outfits prepared to take their arguments to court. Barca continue to plead their innocence, insisting that they have done nothing wrong, but UEFA president Ceferin admits that the allegations against them are “extremely serious” and need to be looked into carefully before decisions are made on what action to take next.
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WHAT THEY SAID: Ceferin has told Ekipa: “I cannot comment directly on this for two reasons. Firstly, because we have an independent disciplinary committee in charge of this. And secondly, because I have not dealt with this matter in detail. However, I can say one thing. I have informed myself and the situation is extremely serious. So serious that, in my opinion, it is one of the most serious in football that I have ever seen.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Pressed further on whether UEFA expects to sanction Barcelona, with the Catalan outfit facing possible financial and sporting penalties, Ceferin added: “I can’t and don’t want to answer that.”
IN TWO PHOTOS:
WHAT NEXT? Barcelona claim that the payments in question were made in order to obtain scouting reports on youth players and technical information about referees, with the current La Liga leaders confident that they can clear their name.