Barcelona facing more questions over refereeing chief payments

MADRID: Barcelona are facing further questions about payments of millions of euros made to a former refereeing chief's company following revelations that the amount in question was four times bigger than the one originally declared.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Barcelona paid over 6.6 million euros between 2001 and 2018 to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former refereeing technical committee vice-president, for providing the club with verbal advice on topics relating to referees.

This is far greater than the 1.4 million euros being spoken about in the media on Thursday when La Liga president Javier Tebas said that no sporting sanctions could be taken because it happened more than three years ago.

El Mundo also alleges that after Barca decided to stop payments, Negreira, dismissed from his position in the federation, sent a fax to the club on February 5, 2019 to threaten them with revealing a "scandal".

The online investigative site El Confidencial also revealed on Friday that two other companies are being investigated in connection with the affair.

Soccercam SL belongs to Negreira's son while Tresep 2014 SL, which was owned by Josep Contreras Arjona, a former Barca director who died in December, was allegedly used to funnel payments to the former referee.

"We will wait for the bodies responsible for the good governance of the Spanish championship to shed light on this situation, which we have learned about through the media," said Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday during his trip to Slovenia.

Barcelona top La Liga at present but in the wake of the revelations were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday.

"If I saw that we were winning by cheating, I would go home,"