JAKARTA - Barcelona are threatened with being banned from participating in the UEFA competition after the Spanish Prosecutor's Office charged the football club with committing bribes to the referee.
Barcelona allegedly gave some money to the former Vice President of the Spanish Referee Committee (CTA) for the 1994-2018 period, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira through her company Dasnil 95 in the period 2016 to 2018. The total money received by the company reached 1.4 million euros (IDR 23.1 billion).
In an official statement, the Spanish Prosecutor's Office said that Barcelona had entered into a secret agreement with Negreira to influence the referee's decision in the game for the club's benefit. Former President Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu are referred to as parties involved in the agreement.
"Through (former) President Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. FC Barcelona has been known to have entered into a secret agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira in his capacity as vice president of the technical Arbitration Committee," the Spanish Prosecutor said in an official statement quoted by Marca on Saturday.
"Barcelona gave some money to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was known to have the agreement, tended to make FC Barcelona benefit from the referee's decision in the match."
However, Spanish La Liga president Javier Tebas claims that Barcelona will not be sanctioned by the Spanish football system because the span of the incident is only three years. However, UEFA has the potential to take action on this case which could have an impact on Barcelona's participation in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League and damaged UEFA's reputation.
Negreira herself denies allegations that she has a tendency to side with one of the clubs. He said that the payments he received from Barcelona were only to provide verbal input on topics surrounding the matter.
The payment also stopped when Negreira no longer served at CTA in 2018. This case was revealed after Spanish tax authorities conducted an investigation into tax payment irregularities by state-owned company Dasnil 95, in the 2016 to 2018 range.
If found guilty, Barcelona could face severe consequences, including being banned from participating in the UEFA competition.
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