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Spanish outlet Cadena Ser revealed documents on Wednesday that showed Barcelona paid €1.4 million to a company belonging to former referees committee vice president Jose Maria Negreira between 2016 and 2018.
Barcelona, who are no strangers to rumours of alleged financial misappropriation have moved quickly to set the record straight regarding payments made to a company of the former vice President of the referees' committee.
DASNIL 95 SL, the company in question is part-owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was on the refereeing committee until 2018.
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Negreira insisted to SER that while he had provided advice to Barcelona verbally, he never exhibited bias at any point and never gave favourable refereeing decisions to the Catalan club.
Barca respond to allegations
Barcelona released a statement confirming the club had indeed made payments to a refereeing company but clarified the situation.
The statement read:
"Barcelona are aware of the investigations into payments of external companies and wishes to make the following clear: In the past, the club hired the services of an external consultant that supplied the club's technical secretaries with reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain,"
"Additionally, the relationship with that supplier extended to technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to complement the information requested by the first and second team coaching staff. This a common practice among professional football clubs.”
They added they would be taking "legal action against those who are trying to tarnish the club's image with possible insinuations against its good reputation."
Barcelona will now turn their attention to the Uefa Europa League round of 16 first leg tie at home against English side Manchester United.
The Blaugrana are top of LaLiga and have gone from strength to strength under the tutelage of head coach, Xavi.
They have won their last six games in the league and are currently 11 points clear of eternal rivals, Real Madrid.
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