Anwar Ibrahim (Cairo)
Spain has been living for weeks under the shock of the “Negrera case”, in which Jose Maria Enriquez Negrera, former vice president of the Referees Technical Committee, is accused of obtaining 3.7 million euros from FC Barcelona from 2001 to 2018, through his private company.
The beginning was last March 10, when the Spanish judiciary charged quite a few officials with charges of corruption, breach of trust and forgery in official papers “commercial records” on the background of suspicious financial payments made by Barcelona to Jose Negrera, and the accused also Oscar Grau and Albert Soller, who are Two prominent members of Josep Maria Bartomeu’s team, former president of Barça.
After that, the case was transferred to the European Football Association (UEFA), which announced on March 23 the opening of an investigation regarding it after it occupied the Spanish and European public opinion.
Finally, the Slovenian Alexander Cheferin, President of the European Football Association, broke his silence and was keen to express his opinion on this issue. He said in an interview with the Slovenian sports newspaper “Ikepa”: Of course, I could not comment directly on this issue for two reasons. The first is that there is an independent investigation committee carrying out this task. The second is because I haven’t looked at it in detail.
He added, “After I was informed of the situation, I see that the situation is very serious, rather it is one of the most dangerous situations that I have witnessed since I assumed responsibility as president of UEFA.” He continued, saying: At the level of “La Liga”, the case is considered old and may lapse by statute of limitations according to Spanish law, and it cannot result in results or effects related to sports competition, but rather its results are centered on the possibility of the Spanish judiciary issuing rulings against a number of those involved in it, which means that it is not possible that “Barca” is subject to the penalty of deducting points or relegating to the lower degree, while the matter differs with regard to “UEFA”, where sports sanctions can be imposed on Barcelona, such as preventing the “Catalan” from participating in European competitions for a season or more.
The Spanish Public Prosecutor had brought 3 charges against Barcelona, including financial and administrative corruption, fraud in the sports field, and forgery of official documents.
The Spanish police found confidential documents for the referees in the home of former Barcelona sports director Josep Contreras, which he received from the private company owned by Negrera. The case file is still open to all possibilities.
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