Catalan referee Estrada Fernández begins a lawsuit against Negreira for corruption

The Catalan Xavier Estrada Fernández has querellado against the ex vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Real Spanish Federation of Football, José María Enríquez Negreira, by presumptive sportive corruption or sportive fraud in payments for advising to the FC Barcelona. This fact arrives afterwards that the Barcelona club confirmed that had a relation of businesses with the ex referee and his son by concepts of consultancys and referee's analyses.

The querella has presented in the courts of Barcelona this Friday and exposes that Negreira loaned services of advice and referee's follow-up "with the aim to guarantee a favourable arbitration to the interests of the Barcelona". This indictment aims to the time that Enríquez Negreira was vice-president of the Referee's Committee, charge that exerted in distinct moments from 2003 and until 2018.

The document details that the ex referee invoiceed these works through his company 'DASNIL 95 SL' and adds that between 2016 and 2018 invoiceed and earned of the Barça 1.392.680 euros. The querella criminal of the also ex collegiate Estrada Fernández equally directs against the son of Negreira, Javier Enríquez Romero, that was manager of the company and that "loaned services of coaching to referees in active, to the time that accompanied them from the hotel to the stadium where had to arbitrate".

This action of the Catalan, as it details the querella, is a request to investigate the case in defence of the honorabilidad of the referees. In fact Estrada, the one who has exerted like referee of football in First Division until 2021, follows exerting like referee VAR and expects that the open investigation by part of the Fiscalía can launch results of corruption on the managers.

All very clear from the Camp Nou

By his part, the Barça sustained that the services of a consultor technical external like Negreira, simply supplied, in format video, "technical reports referred to players of inferior categories for the technical office". The Barcelona club added that the relation with this consultor external "expanded with technical reports related with the professional arbitration to end to complement information required by the technical body of the first team and of the filial".