Barcelona knew who was the referee of the Copa del Rey final three months before

The situation, reported by the newspaper “El Confidencial”, dates back to 2017 and is part of the “Caso Negreira”, in which Barcelona is accused of corruption, breach of trust and false business records.

The Spanish newspaper “El Confidencial” published a message sent, in 2017, by Javier Enríquez Romero, son of the former vice-president of the Spanish Technical Committee of Referees, to Albert Soler, at the time director of Barcelona, ​​in which he communicated the name of the referee who would officiate in that year’s Copa del Rey final, three months before the nomination was officially known.

“It will be Clos Gómez”, wrote Enriquez Romero at the end of February 2017. 74 days later, the Spanish referee was appointed for the match against Alavés, which Barça won 3-1.

This is yet another episode in the “Caso Negreira”, a scandal involving Barcelona that has focused attention on Spanish football.

At issue is the payment by the Catalan club of more than 7 million euros, allegedly for advisory services in the area of ​​arbitration between 2001 and 2008, to the company Dasnil 95, owned by José María Enríquez Negreira.

Alleged tax irregularities committed by the company exposed, in May 2022, the payments received by the former vice-president of the Technical Commission of Arbitrators.

Barcelona, ​​several former managers and the former head of refereeing José Negreira were indicted for corruption, breach of trust and false commercial records, in a case of large payments to the former football referee.

The current president of the Catalans, Joan Laporta, reacted to the case through social networks, where he shared that “Barça is innocent of what it is accused of and the victim of a campaign against its honor”, promising to “defend and prove the innocence of the club”.

This case, in which the Catalan club is continuously associated with the crime of corruption in business, will be joined to another, resulting from a complaint filed in recent weeks by the former referee and current video referee Estrada Fernández against Negreira and the company Dasnil 95 , for sporting corruption.