Ex-FC Barcelona Chief Implies Club Paid Negreira For ‘Lobby Service’

An ex-FC Barcelona director, Toni Freixa, appeared to imply during an appearance on COPE that the club paid the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira for a “lobby service”, or at least that this is what it was offered by Negreira.

By outlets such as OK Diario, this has been taken as an admission from Freixa of Barca paying “to have the referee’s favor”, with Freixa later taking to X – formerly known as Twitter – to deny such accusations.

Barca hasn’t denied making payments in general to Negreira, which have been valued at more than $8 million from 2001 to 2018.

Through figures such as current president Joan Laporta, however, the club insists that the payments were made for honest consultation work.

Barca was charged with “continued corruption between individuals in the sports field” in 2023, and the case remains open.

During an appearance on COPE radio, Freixa at least admitted to being “scared” of referees in Spain.

“We have always felt belittled and mistreated, or [that there is] a favourable treatment that the club does not have. So many mistakes could have been made,” he said.

“A clever guy was selling you a lobby service: ‘Don’t worry, with me, I’ll make you some reports, I’ll show you how it works and you’ll do better’,” Freixa added, in what has been taken by OK Diario as an admission of paying for bias or favourable treatment.

“And one president after another after another did not dare to remove that because he thought it was going to be worse for us,” Freixa also said.

Taking to X, Freixa tweeted: “I have never acknowledged payment to referees because they have NEVER existed. Do not put words in my mouth that I have not said. I urge you to rectify [this] immediately.

“Today the whole cavern is putting words in my mouth that I have NEVER said. Their mission is to cover up for the state-club what we have ALL seen all our lives,” he went on, in a nod to the Catalans’ bitter rivals Real Madrid.

“And they are willing to do anything. To defame, insult and slander too. Justice will put them in their place,” he stressed.