UEFA have confirmed that they are investigating Barcelona over alleged payments made in return for favourable refereeing decisions - and the LaLiga giants could end up being banned from the Champions League should they be found guilty of breaching rules.
The LaLiga giants have been indicted by a Catalan court over “corruption” and “false business records” after prosecutors alleged that they paid €8.4m (£7.4m) to a former vice-chair of the Spanish referee’s committee and his company.
Barca deny any wrongdoing but acknowledge payments were made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira and his Dasnil 95 firm between 2001 and 2018. The club have said the company was paid as a consultancy who compiled video reports of referees "with the aim of complementing the information required by the coaching staff." Negreira, 77, left his vice-chair role in 2018.
But public prosecutors have said otherwise, leading to European football’s governing body confirming that an investigation has now been launched. No evidence that referees or individual games were actually influenced has been published.
In a statement UEFA said: "Ethics and disciplinary inspectors have been appointed to conduct an investigation regarding a potential violation of Uefa's legal framework by FC Barcelona in connection with the so-called 'Caso Negreira'.”
That follows LaLiga chief Javier Tebas claiming that the club’s current president Joan Laporta must resign should charges be proven, while rivals Real Madrid have offered to appear in court "in defence of its legitimate rights … [as one of] the affected parties.”
"The majority of La Liga clubs expressed their deep concern about this case, which they consider to be of the utmost seriousness," a La Liga statement published last month said.
Laporta, who claims Tebas is “obsessed” with the club, has promised to open an internal investigation into the payments, while head coach Xavi Hernandez - who was a star player for the team during the period when payments were made to Dasnil - said “If I thought we were cheating I'd have gone home."
Former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as Negreira, have been indicted by prosecutors.
The public prosecutor’s office said: "FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees.”
