Mueez Ajao
– UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the refereeing scandal facing Barcelona is one of the most serious situations he has ever seen in football.
– European football’s governing body announced in March it had opened an investigation into payments Barca made to the former vice president of Spain’s refereeing committee.
– From 2001 to 2018, Barca paid over €7 million to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The Catalan club say they were purchasing “technical reports on refereeing” and deny ever buying match officials or influence.
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– “The situation is extremely serious,” Ceferin said in an interview with Slovenian newspaper Ekipa on Monday when asked about the events surrounding Barca.
– “It is so serious that, in my opinion, it is one of the most serious [situations] in football that I have ever seen,” he said.
– Prosecutors are pursuing charges against Barca for alleged corruption, with a court in Spain recently agreeing to open an investigation into the club and former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu.
– Real Madrid and several sporting bodies in the country have also joined the prosecutors’ case.
– LaLiga president Javier Tebas has called the scandal “the worst reputational crisis” he can remember in Spanish football and called on Barca president Joan Laporta to clear up the payments.
– Laporta said he plans to hold a news conference once an internal investigation concludes.
– However, Tebas has also confirmed LaLiga will not be able to sanction Barca because of the statute of limitations in place in Spain — although Ceferin revealed UEFA don’t face such restrictions.
– “I cannot comment directly on this for two reasons,” Ceferin added. “Firstly, because we have an independent disciplinary committee in charge of this. And secondly, because I have not dealt with this matter in detail.
– “At the level of [LaLiga], of course, the matter is time-barred and can have no competitive consequences, but the proceedings are ongoing at the level of prosecutors. But as far as UEFA is concerned, there is nothing time-barred.”
