UEFA to assess Real Madrid dossier over Barcelona referee payments

UEFA will assess a new dossier submitted by Real Madrid concerning Barcelona's payments to a former senior refereeing official, BBC Sport reported on Thursday. The governing body said its ethics and disciplinary inspectors would examine the material within their existing review. Barcelona continue to deny wrongdoing and say no new proceedings have been opened against them.

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The case concerns allegations that Barcelona paid 8.4 million euros to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain's referees' committee, between 2001 and 2018. Since the matter became public in 2023, Barcelona have maintained that the payments covered scouting and technical reports about officials, supplied by Negreira and his company, Dasnil 95. The club have rejected allegations that the money was used to bribe referees.

Real Madrid described their submission as evidence affecting the integrity of competition and trust in refereeing. According to the BBC, the dossier is reported to run to more than 50,000 pages. In their Thursday statement, Real called for the investigation to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible and for decisions reflecting the seriousness of any proven facts.

UEFA characterised the material as substantial but said it would be assessed as part of work already under way. Barcelona's response stressed that two investigators were appointed in 2023 and that the club had complied with their requests. Barcelona said the proceedings had never been closed, disputing any suggestion that they had now been reopened following Real Madrid's submission.

Barcelona also said investigators had neither made new requests to the club nor passed on Real Madrid's complaint as of Thursday. The club said they would respond if that happened, while leaving investigators to decide whether further action was necessary. Their statement also said the UEFA file remained subject to the outcome of criminal proceedings in Spain.

A Barcelona court has been examining the case since 2023, and that investigation remains ongoing, the BBC reported. UEFA's investigators decided in June 2023 that Barcelona would not face punishment, and the club have continued to participate in European competition since then. The newly submitted documents are now awaiting assessment within the continuing review.