New angles from Barsagit LaLiga president: Barcelona’s payments are not transparent/The prosecutor’s office is looking for evidence of collusion

According to Fars news agency, the controversies about Barca Gate continue after the news that Barcelona paid 7 million euros to Jose Enriquez, vice president of La Liga’s referees’ technical committee, between 2011 and 2018 and during the presidency of Josep Bartomeu.

What do Enriquez and Barcelona say?

The issue has caused speculation about the selection of referees favored by the Blues for the team’s games, but Enriquez said that this money was paid to him for technical guidance so that Barça could make sure that the refereeing decisions are not against them and are completely impartial.

Barcelona club also announced in a statement that these amounts were paid for technical reports related to professional refereeing, and these actions are a common practice among professional football clubs.

Barcelona’s punishment window has been closed for 2 years

However, Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, said whether this amount affected the results of Barcelona’s games or not: I did not see a strange game. Of course, these payments are not transparent. These events are strange and unusual. I don’t know if this affects the games as well.

Tebas went on to say whether a suspension would make Barcelona cry or not: It is clear that these events should never have happened. It is impossible that disciplinary sanctions will be applied to Barcelona because 5 years have passed since this incident and this type of punishment will expire after three years.

Sports penalty no, criminal penalty yes

The head of LaLiga clarified: At the sports level, punishments are impossible, but at the criminal level, it is possible. The prosecutor’s office is looking for documents on whether the crime of collusion was committed by individuals or not, we have to see where the investigation will go.

Tebas also announced LaLiga’s investigation into the selection of referees for Barcelona games and said: We will ask the managers of the refereeing department for an explanation. We want to get information from the referees committee and LaLiga representatives about whether or not Enriquez had any influence on the selection of referees. From any point of view, this should not have happened in Spanish football.

end of message/