'Barcelona thought they were harmed by referees': Negreira finally opens up on Blaugrana payments

"Barcelona considered that their team were harmed [by referees] and other teams were favoured. This is a personal hypothesis, nobody has told it to me directly," former vice-president of the referee committee Jose Negreira has told the Spanish Tax Agency inspectors, via Cope.

"My task was to give my personal opinion on matches in terms of refereeing and the players involved. I was giving technical advice. What Barcelona wanted was to make sure that no decisions were made against the club, that everything was neutral," he stated.

"I saw them [Bartomeu and Rosell] at most six times a year. They wanted to make sure that the arbitration committee does not stand against Barca, that everything remains neutral," the 77-year-old also noted.

Well, this is what the club said in their first statement when the whole story broke. Barca insist they were only receiving 'technical reports' on referees and lower-league players.

Barcelona are being accused of favourable treatment from the referees from 2016 to 2018. There is apparently some evidence that the club had been giving money to the former vice-president of the referee committee since 2003.