The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office asks that Laporta, Luis Enrique and Valverde testify as witnesses in the 'Negreira case'

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office is requesting that the court investigating the "Negreira case" require FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta and former Barça first-team coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde to testify as witnesses. The Public Prosecutor's Office is requesting that all of them clarify the "reason for the payments" made by Barça to the "instrumental companies" of the historic number two among Spanish referees, José María Enríquez Negreira .

The Anti-Corruption Office details that Laporta was president between 2003 and 2010 and is currently the entity's top executive. Therefore, it requires him to testify about the "reason for the payments" made to Negreira's shell companies, Dasnil 95, Nilsad, and Soccercam.

In the case of the technicians, the Prosecutor's Office emphasizes that Barça paid Negreira more than eight million euros for theoretical reports on the referees who officiated Barça's matches at Camp Nou and away, and wants to determine whether such analyses existed and if they served any purpose.

The current Athletic Club de Bilbao coach previously testified about these events before the Civil Guard. He explained that during his time in charge of the Barça first team, between July 2017 and January 2020, he was never aware of any refereeing report from the Negreira family. Furthermore, he added that he didn't need it because he knows the First Division referees perfectly and doesn't need outside advice to prepare matches.

For this reason, the Armed Forces Institute has already concluded that the analyses prepared by the son of the former refereeing leader "lack justification for payments that were supposedly made for consulting services" and calls them "not credible." For their part, Laporta and Luis Enrique will testify for the first time in this proceeding, in which the main suspects have not yet appeared before the judge, with the exception of Negreira, who refused to testify, more than two years after the biggest scandal in the history of Spanish football broke out.