Spanish club Real Madrid have announced that they will be involved in a corruption arbitration case involving rivals Barcelona and an “affected party” as soon as proceedings are resumed.
On Friday, the Spanish judiciary charged Barcelona, its former presidents Sandro Rosella and Josep Bartomeu, and former arbitration representative José María Enríquez Negrera with “corruption”, “breach of trust” and “falsification of commercial records” in the case of suspicious payments from the Catalan club Negrere.
Real Madrid would like to express its deep concern about the seriousness of the facts and reiterate its confidence in the judiciary. The club has agreed, in defense of its legal rights, to stand trial when the judge opens the case before the injured parties,” the Royal Club said in a statement on Sunday.
The prosecution in Barcelona is directed against the Catalan club in its moral capacity, as well as against Rosell, Bartomeu and two other people from the latter’s team.
The case concerns alleged payments made by Barcelona to Negrere, former Vice President of the Committee for Technical Arbitration, for providing advice and verbal advice to the club on topics related to refereeing.
Prosecutors indicated that the Catalan club paid Negrera a total of more than 7.3 million euros between 1994 and 2018.
According to Barcelona, which denies any wrongdoing, Negrera was paid to advise the club on refereeing matters. But the Spanish judiciary believes that these sums could be used to bribe the rulers.
Source: AFP.
