Barcelona officially summoned to court in Negreira scandal hearing | OneFootball

Barcelona’s situation in the Negreira scandal has taken yet another steep turn, and the club seems to be stuck in a never-ending circle of accusations for making payments to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

As relayed by AS in a recent report, the judge investigating the case has now cited the club as a witness for the proceedings and summoned the representatives of the club and the former president of the club, Joan Gaspart.

While Gaspart must appear in person as a witness on February 6th, the club will be represented by vice president Elena Fort in the hearing scheduled on January 27th.

A long list of orders

As furthered by the Spanish outlet, the court has also requested the club to submit the original contracts they had in place with Negreira Dasnil 95 SL and Nilsad SCP, the companies to whom the payments were made for refereeing reports between 2001 and 2014.

Barcelona have been summoned to court in the Negreira case. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Further, the club will also have to identify the technicians and assistants who helped them with the claimed ‘reports’ and provide photos, videos or original copies of them that prove that the payments were indeed for the reports.

For starters, Joan Laporta, Ernesto Valverde and Luis Enrique are expected to present themselves as witnesses on December 12th to provide their testimony on the situation.

While Laporta and the club had indeed been exonerated from the said bribery charges, the summoning of the club now, however, comes as a step in the wrong direction for the Blaugrana.

Given how the recent hearing with Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu went, however, there is reason to be optimistic that the black mark on the club will be lifted soon.