Barcelona’s head coach Xavi Hernandez, left, offers his team instructions before their La Liga match against Villarreal on February 12, 2023, at the Ceramica stadium in Villarreal, Spain. la liga defensora where to watch la liga, los defensores
On Wednesday, Barcelona denied any conflict of interest in paying a company owned by the vice president of Spain’s officiating committee for technical assessments on match officials.
According to radio station SER Catalunya, the payments for data on referee officiating were made between 2016 and 2018, and amounted 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million). A former member of the officiating committee for the Spanish Soccer Federation from 1994-2018, José Mara Enrquez Negreira, reportedly owns the company that Barcelona contracted. A tax audit of the corporation includes a look into the payments in question.
After the new administration gained office in Spain in 2018, Enrquez Negreira resigned from the committee, as reported by the Spanish federation.
The federation issued a statement saying, “The refereeing committee condemns acts that could be considered unprofessional.” There must be no “conflict of interest” for any active referee or committee member to do any work.
According to SER’s reporting, Enrquez Negreira claimed he never gave preferential treatment to Barcelona when assigning referees and that he was solely tasked with providing verbal assistance to the club by advising the players on proper behavior before each referee.
It is normal practice for clubs to obtain reports on officials, and they can either hire outside firms or generate the papers themselves. It’s unclear if or not any other clubs received them from the former official’s employer. La Liga Defensora los defensores
Those “technical reports linked to professional refereeing” were requested by Barcelona “to complement the material requested by the first and second team coaching staff,” the club added.
As the team put it, “it is a customary practice among professional football clubs to analyze reports on referees.” They are now being prepared in-house at Barcelona rather than being outsourced, the club stated.
President Joan Laporta of Barcelona stated the timing of the disclosure of the payment was an attempt to disrupt the team’s winning streak. Catalan club hosts Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday, looking for 12th straight victory in all competitions. los defensores
The club expressed regret that the news broke just when Barcelona was playing its best soccer of the season. As the club’s official statement reads, “Barcelona shall be initiating legal steps against individuals who are seeking to tarnish the image of the club with probable innuendos against its excellent reputation that could be produced by the release of such information.”
Xavi Hernandez, Barcelona’s head coach, chimed in to defend the team as well. where to watch la liga
We always look into who the referees are and whether or not they are communicative, he said. A long time has passed with no change. This is nothing new.
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