According to Spanish media outlet Le Monde, former La Liga referee technical committee vice-president Negrela once told Barca, "I can help you with VAR. According to previous Spanish media reports, Barça had paid a consulting company for a long time, totaling more than 6 million euros, and the owner of this company was Negrela.
"It's better to work with me"
Between 2016 and 2018, it was reported that between 2016 and 2018, the Barça club paid a total of 1,392,680 euros to Dasnil 95, a company founded by Negrela, former vice president of the Spanish Football Federation's Referee Technical Committee. Later the Spanish newspapers El País and Le Monde reported that the payments took longer, from 2001 to 2018, a total of 6.65 million euros were paid, excluding VAT.
Negrela is responsible for advising Barca and tracking the referee, whose aim is to ensure that the referee makes a decision in Barca's favour. Negreila reportedly doesn't just want to make Barça's money. VAR sparked controversy after Real Madrid won the league once, with Negreila telling the club's leadership, "It would be better to work with me. ”
The final results suggest that Real Madrid may not have purchased this VAR customization service. The newspaper "As" took stock of the teams affected by the VAR intervention in La Liga this season, with Real Madrid being the most affected and Barca the least.
The prosecution will initiate a prosecution
In the summer of 2018, when Negreila stepped down as vice-chairman of the refereeing technical committee, Barça stopped paying his company. But nearly two years later, for the 2019-2020 season, Negreila made "some proposals" to Barcelona. Say "I can help your club with VAR and if there were me, [your club] would be better off this season".
VAR has been officially used since the 2016 Club World Cup, and at first everyone had high hopes for VAR, generally believing that the intervention of technology would greatly reduce the number of wrongful cases in the goal line and give football justice. Unexpectedly, VAR can be manipulated and become a tool for some people to accumulate money.
Bartomeu, former president of Barça (infographic) According to IC photo
Le Monde pointed out that Barça management was fed up with Negrela's repeated entanglements, ignoring the services of the former FA boss. Negreila then claimed to have evidence of Barça irregularities. He even threatened and blackmailed former Barça president Bartomeu to publicize Barca's violations.
For the "Le Monde" revelation, Barça denied it. Club president Laporta said in an interview with Spain 6: "Barça has never bought referees, and some people want to smear and damage Barca's reputation. However, Spanish football has already taken action, and the two clubs Sevilla and Espanyol issued official statements as early as February, asking La Liga and the Spanish Football Association to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Spanish prosecutors also decided to prosecute Barça as a legal entity, former president Bartomeu, members of the management team and Negrela personally.
Red Star News reporter Hu Minjuan
Edited by Ou Peng
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