Big news coming out of Spain claim that FC Barcelona has been charged with corruption over payments to a former referee.
It was revealed on Friday that Spanish prosecutors had a filed a complaint against Barcelona and two of their former presidents over alleged payments to a company owned by the senior refereeing official to influence match results.
"FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees," the public prosecutor's office said, as per BBC Sport.
Read: Official: Barca Release Statement, Reveal Why They Paid Referee Chief £1.2m
Sky Sports reported that the Catalan giants allegedly paid €7.3million to firms owned by the former vice president of Spain's referee committee Enriquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018.
Barcelona had initially denied any wrong-doing when the news about the payments surfaced last month, although they did admit to paying £1.2million for services of an external consultant.
The complaint from the Spanish prosecutors focuses on the payment of €2.9million which was made between 2014 and 2018, which alleges the club reached a "confidential verbal agreement" with Negreira.
Former Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, Negreira and two other Blaugrana officials have now been accused of corruption in sports, unfair administration and falsehood in mercantile documents.
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