Jose Negreira may have supplied Barcelona with classified information about referees // Photo: elpais.com
The “royal club” is convinced that Barcelona, which paid the former vice-president of the technical committee of referees (CTA) under the Spanish Football Federation, Jose Negreira, about € 7.5 million for consulting services, “caused multimillion-dollar damage, distorting the very essence of the competition and falsifying them with incomprehensible decisions.”
According to Spanish publication AS, Real has sent a motion to the judge in charge of the “Negreira case” requesting access to more than 600 documents with the results of the Barcelona club’s financial audit from 2001 to 2018. By doing so, Real intends to find out whether the Catalans’ multi-million dollar payments were justified.
In 2023, it was revealed that Barcelona had paid former CTA vice-president Jose Negreira a total of €7.5 million over 17 years for some kind of consulting services. In the same year, the Negreira case was opened, the legal proceedings of which are still ongoing.
According to the investigation, before La Liga matches Negreira gave the club “Barcelona” written reports and videos analyzing the profile of the referee, who was appointed head of the refereeing team for the next match “blue-granate”. “Barcelona” declares the absence in its archives of contracts concluded between the club and Jose Negreira. Also, no records confirming Negreira’s verbal advice have been found at the moment.
President of Real Florentino Perez calls the Negreira affair “the most serious scandal in modern soccer”. In a recent commentary for sport.es, Barcelona president Joan Laporta called the allegations “a sharp ‘Barcelonaite’ who has penetrated the heart of the Madrid club”.
A Barcelona court in May 2024 cleared the club of charges of allegedly bribing referees in the “Negreira affair”. In October 2025, proceedings resumed with the Catalan club facing formal corruption charges. The court summoned Barcelona vice-president Elena Fort to testify, scheduled for January 27.
Barcelona currently leads the La Liga standings, four points ahead of Real. The Catalans are also the reigning Spanish champions.
