In Spain, law enforcement officials conducted a search of the national football referee committee's headquarters on Thursday as part of an inquiry into payments made by Barcelona, one of the country's football powerhouses, to a company owned by a former committee official.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Barcelona paid millions of euros to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira's company, a former vice president of the Spanish football refereeing committee, from 2001 to 2018. The suspicion is that these payments were intended to exert influence over referee decisions.
The Barcelona court overseeing the case ordered the search of the committee's headquarters "as part of the investigation into the questionable payments made by the Catalan club" to Negreira, according to a statement from the regional court oversight body.
The Guardia Civil police force, responsible for the search conducted at the football federation's headquarters in Las Rozas, a suburb of Madrid, did not anticipate making any immediate arrests, as stated by a spokesperson.
In March, Spanish prosecutors formally charged Barcelona, along with two former club presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as Negreira and his son, Javier Enriquez Negreira, with corruption in connection to this matter.
The investigation was initiated after Spain's tax authorities detected irregularities in tax payments made by Negreira's company, Dasnil 95, between 2016 and 2018. It was reported that Dasnil 95 received payments from Barcelona during these years.
While Barcelona contends that Dasnil 95 was compensated for advising the club on refereeing-related issues, prosecutors suspect that the funds might have been employed to influence match officials improperly.
