The scandal that shakes Barça for having paid José María Enríquez Negreira for his reports on the referees calls into question not only ethically reprehensible behavior and apparently criminally punishable, but also the entire arbitration system and the cleanliness of Spanish football. The Prosecutor’s Office is not investigating, however, alleged favors from the arbitrators to Barcelona, but rather tax irregularities of the Enríquez Negreira company in the invoices issued to the Treasury between 2016 and 2018 and alleged corruption between individuals. During said period, Barça paid the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) 1.4 million euros, and up to seven million since 2001.
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The contract between Barça and Enríquez Negreira generates all kinds of suspicions, it has put the arbitration team in the pillory and now doubts are growing as to whether or not the Barça team benefited from the decisions of the referees in those seasons in which the Barcelona led by Leo Messi won two League and three Cup titles. Penalties, red cards and presumed resolutions favorable to the culé team take on a new dimension after revealing a case that will not be punished in the competition, since with the new Sports Law , and also with the previous one, the sanctions for very serious infractions have already prescribed, although they could have consequences in the criminal and tax sphere.
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For more than two years, even without VAR in the championship, Barça was not awarded a single penalty (78 league games) and in the three seasons investigated they were awarded only three, while there were 33 in their favor. In this period, Real Madrid, the other team that steps in the opposite area the most, received 27 whistles for and 12 against. When in 2018 the club chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu broke its agreement with Enríquez Negreira, however, the numbers changed drastically for Barça in this section and, in this case, to their detriment. In the last five Leagues, although the penalties in their favor have been similar (31), 19 were awarded against them, six times more.
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Barcelona also spent a year and a half without being sanctioned with an expulsion, between October 2015 and April 2017 (59 consecutive games). Only four Barça footballers were expelled during the period investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office. The rivals, on the other hand, suffered up to 23 expulsions. In the case of the eternal rival, Madrid suffered 11 expulsions compared to 12 for their opponents. When the payments to the former CTA vice president ran out, up to 20 times the referees left Barça with one less player.
Barça did not win the League that course, although, after the record of the previous campaign (19 penalties in their favor), nine maximum penalties were called and none against. And among the goals conceded to the Catalans, a goal from Messi in a clear offside against Espanyol or alleged penalties committed by the Catalans against Valencia is remembered above all. However, one of the most serious errors of recent times in the League was Betis’s own goal at Villamarín that crossed the goal line and was not conceded to Barcelona. Also ignored, among many other plays discussed for and against Barça, was a penalty from Villarreal, due to a handball by Bruno, at El Madrigal.
Barcelona was champion of the League, with only five penalties in favor and two against, while Real Madrid, who finished third, received ten whistles and was penalized with four, with which the arbitration decisions were not decisive in this section. . In the case of expulsions, the Catalans suffered two and the whites four. The most striking fact was that Barcelona would not be awarded a penalty for 746 days, until March 1, 2018, when the streak ended at the Camp Nou against Las Palmas.
The first League with VAR, also won by Barcelona, continued to be marked by arbitration controversies and, among the most remembered actions is a stomp on Nacho by Luis Suárez in a classic that was not punished or an expulsion of the then Barça player Lenglet considered unfair that provoked anger culé. In this campaign, however, Barça and Madrid were awarded the same penalties (nine each), although there were only two against the Catalans compared to the eight with which the whites were punished.
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