La Liga president confirms Barcelona won't face sanctions over referee scandal
La Liga president Javier Tebas has confirmed that Barcelona will not face sporting sanctions for the payment to a member of Spain's referee committee.
Spanish outlet Cadena Ser revealed on Wednesday that
Barcelonais under investigation by prosecutors for the payments of €1.6 million to a company owned by the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees from 2016-18.
The Spanish football federation also said that they have asked Barcelona and the Technical Committee of Referees to provide more information regarding this case.
La Liga president Javier Tebas confirmed on Thursday that they can not sanction Barcelona due to La Liga's statute of limitations, but the club could still face criminal punishment.
“It’s clear that these services should never have been provided,”
the Tebas said.
“It won’t be possible for Barcelona to receive disciplinary sanctions. Five years have gone by and [the period in which to hand out] these types of sanctions expires after three years."
Tebas added: “On a sporting level it isn’t possible, but it may be on a criminal level. The prosecutor’s office is looking into the facts to see whether a match-fixing crime has been committed by individuals. We’ll see how the investigation turns out.”
Barcelona issued an official statement on Wednesday and defended itself, but did not deny that they have received consulting services from Enriquez Negreira.
Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu also said the club paid money for these types of referee reports since at least 2003 and that it was stopped in 2018 for cost-cutting reasons.
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