Barcelona faces the possibility of being kicked out of the Champions League has the La Liga giants have been charged with bribery for payments made to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
This case has rumbled on throughout the year but the latest according to El Debate, could eventually result in Barca being banned from the Champions League, if UEFA sees fit.
Barca are believed to have paid €7.5 million ($7.9 million) to companies owned by Negreira from 2001 to 2018. This takes in current president Joan Laporta’s first reign as the club’s leader, but Laporta has claimed on numerous occasions that the payments were made honestly for consultation work.
The Catalans were charged with “continued corruption between individuals in the sports field” by the Barcelona provincial prosecutor’s office in March which prompted UEFA to open its own investigation; that charge has now changed to bribery, as the judge believes that the crime of bribery fits the case better, because Negreira “participated in the exercise of public functions” during the period of time that he received payments from Barca, which then ceased when he left his position.
The new worry for Barcelona is that the judge has pointed out in a court order that it would not even be necessary to prove that Barca “adulterated” competitions in Spain in a hypothetical trial because the crime of bribery is already consummated when an official is paid to do a favour regardless of whether that favour is done or not.
The Catalan club will go through the process of a trial to prove themselves innocent but this latest development could lead UEFA to ban them from European competitions, which would be a financial disaster for Laporta and his board.