UEFA president sends warning to Barcelona over the Negreira case: “Situation is very serious”

 Barcelona have found themselves in a serious controversy due to the payments made to former vice-president of the Referees Committee, Enriquez Negreira.

The payments were made between 2001 and 2018, with the club insisting that they were for services such as scout reports on youth players and technical reports on referees.

However, allegations have been levelled against the Catalans that the payments were made to influence referee decisions, even though no evidence has been found to support the accusations.

Meanwhile, UEFA have launched an investigation into the matter after La Liga president Javier Tebas took the matter to the European Union.

With UEFA’s Ethics and Disciplinary Committee looking into the Negreira case, the president of the governing body, Aleksander Ceferin has spoken out on the matter and what it could mean for Barcelona.

Speaking to a Slovenian publication Ekipa (h/t AS), Ceferin said: “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.”

Further elaborating on the matter, Ceferin added that unlike in La Liga where the incident is past the statute of limitations, there is no such thing when it comes to UEFA.

“At the level of the Spanish League, of course, the matter is time-barred and can have no competitive consequences, but proceedings are ongoing at the level of the Spanish civil prosecutor’s office. But as far as UEFA is concerned, there is nothing time-barred,” he said.

When asked if Barcelona will be punished and whether the case will have sporting consequences for the club, Ceferin replied: “I can’t and don’t want to answer that.”

As iterated earlier, there has been no evidence found to support the allegations that Barcelona benefitted from referees courtesy of the payments.

In fact, leaked reports that Negreira sent to the club only support their claim that they were related to technical reports on match officials.