Real Madrid want Barcelona stripped of 28 titles for bribing refs after dropping 50,000-page bomb | OneFootball

In what has turned into quite the legal maze of an international break, following on from the Manchester City bombshell, Real Madrid want Barcelona stripped of 28 titles for what they believe was a clear case of the catalans bribing referees.

Between 2001 and 2018, Barcelona paid José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the technical committee of referees in Spain, €8.4m and UEFA now want to clarify the nature of these payments, why they were made and whether they had any impact on games and competitions.

The story first came to light in February 2023, when it was alleged that Barcelona had made payments to Negreira. That was later found to be true, but the Catalan club insisted it was not a case of bribery.

Regarding the payments, Barcelona claimed that the club had ‘hired the services of an external consultant [Negreira] that supplied the club’s technical secretaries with reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain’.

Club president Joan Laporta – after being indicted for bribery, sports corruption, unfair administration, and forgery – insisted that “Barcelona has never bought referees”.

But a lack of solid proof that a crime occurred – specifically that Barcelona’s payments to Negreira were intended to manipulate sporting outcomes or that such manipulation actually happened – meant the case has never gone anywhere. Until now.

In a dramatic new turn, UEFA have reopened the file after Real Madrid sent the European body a dossier of 50,000 pages, featuring evidence and testimonies, demanding that the case be dealt with and any sanctions due handed out.

Real Madrid want Barcelona to be stripped of all titles between 2001 and 2018 – 28 major gongs in total – after UEFA confirmed that they had received a “large amount” of documents from Los Blancos.

Spanish outlet AS explain that the new documents means the case is moving to the stage of examining the evidence in detail, which involves gathering information from all parties and listening to testimonies, while also giving Barcelona the chance to present its defence.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described the situation as “one of the most serious” when it first came to light over three years ago.

“The situation is extremely serious,” Ceferin said.

“It is so serious that, in my opinion, it is one of the most serious [situations] in soccer that I have ever seen.”