Aleksander Ceferin, stated that the refereeing crisis involving Barcelona is one of the worst he has ever witnessed in sport.
In regards to payments made by the club to a business owned by a senior refereeing official, They launched a formal inquiry into Barcelona last month for what may have been a legal infraction.
In an interview that appeared in the newspaper on Monday, Ceferin stated, “I cannot comment directly on this for two reasons. “First of all, since our disciplinary committee is independent. Also, I haven’t gone into detail about this issue.
But I have something to say. According to what I’ve been told, the situation is very serious. So serious that, in my opinion, it ranks among the most serious incidents in football since I started playing it.
The alleged payments of 7.3 million euros ($7.96 million) are said to have been made by Barcelona to companies owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was the vice president of the Spanish Football Association’s refereeing committee at the time, between 2001 and 2018.
Given that the proceedings are still pending at the level of the Spanish civil prosecutor’s office, Ceferin continued, “At the level of the Spanish league, of course, the case is out of date and cannot have competitive ramifications.” Nothing is time-barred in this situation either, the same is true.
The club issued a denial of wrongdoing in a statement in February, claiming that professional football clubs routinely use external consultants to provide them with technical reports on professional referees.
