Tebas: Negreira case is most serious I’ve seen in history of Spanish football

Speaking as a guest tonight on RMC, LaLiga president Javier Tebas notably discussed recent allegations of long-running corruption in Spanish refereeing – the so-called Negreira case, named after the former vice-president of the Spanish referees’ committee between 1994 and 2018, who allegedly received payments from Barcelona.

Negreira allegedly received €7.3m between 2001 and 2018, which for what he described to tax inspectors as “advice” with the intention of ensuring they received “neutral” refereeing. Negreira has denied favouring Barcelona in any way.

Tebas, a frequent critic of Paris Saint-Germain’s financial backing, explained to RMC that the gravity of the accusations the current La Liga leaders face are unprecedented:

“The Negreira case is the most serious I’ve seen in the history of Spanish football.”

“It’s very serious that a club would be able to pay the vice-president of the referees for 18 years, no matter what the purpose of that payment may be. Unfortunately things are already settled in sporting terms so we can’t do anything there, but in legal terms we can go much further.”

With both UEFA and the Spanish authorities investigating the accusations, Tebas indicates that LaLiga had joined the Public Prosecutor’s complaint against Barcelona as a plaintiff.

The LaLiga chief goes on to explain that the league had handed over the information at its disposal to UEFA soon after the controversy broke, and concludes that his major concern is regarding the effect that the affair will have on the image of Spanish football in the future: “I would be even more concerned had we not taken the bull by the horns.”

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin