UEFA confirms receipt of Real Madrid's 'substantial' Negreira dossier on Barcelona

UEFA has confirmed it received “a substantial amount of documents” from Real Madrid relating to its ongoing investigation into FC Barcelona over the Negreira case, the governing body said on Thursday. (ESPN)

“UEFA can confirm that it has received from Real Madrid CF a substantial amount of documents related to the ongoing investigation into FC Barcelona in the matter involving José María Enríquez Negreira,” UEFA said. Its Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors have also received the documents and will assess them as part of their ongoing review.

Real Madrid said the dossier contained “extensive documentation and evidence regarding events of extraordinary seriousness, which directly affect the integrity of the competition and confidence in the refereeing system,” adding that the investigation should proceed “with the utmost urgency” and that competent bodies should take “appropriate decisions in accordance with the severity of the verified facts.”

The club’s president, Florentino Pérez, said in May that Real Madrid was gathering evidence for a UEFA dossier. He has also claimed “they’ve stolen seven league [titles] from me,” after previously taking a conciliatory tone with Barcelona.

Barcelona stressed this was no “new proceedings,” saying the investigation was opened in 2023, “has never been closed,” and that the club “has always complied” with requests. Payments of more than €7 million made by Barcelona to companies linked to Negreira — the former vice-president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees — over two decades have been under UEFA investigation since 2023, with a separate Spanish criminal case ongoing. (The Sun)