Barcelona have been charged with corruption after allegedly paying €7.3m to ex-VP of refereeing committee Enriquez Negreira - Reports

Barcelona have been accused of corruption by Spanish prosecutors. The football club allegedly paid €7.3 million to former vice-president of the refereeing committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The payments were supposedly made to influence match results.

The payments were allegedly made between 2001 and 2018 (via Sky Sports). Two former presidents of the Catalan club, Sandro Rossell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, along with Negreira and two other Barca officials are under investigation.

The investigation started after authorities noticed Negreira's withdrawals from various banks. El Pais reported that the Blaugrana wanted to have neutral referees for their games.

Barca released a statement last month, denying any wrongdoing on their part. It read (via GOAL):

"That in the past FC Barcelona hired the services of an external consultant that supplied the club's technical secretaries with reports in video format of youth players from other clubs in Spain."

It further said:

"Additionally, the relationship with that supplier extended to technical reports related to professional refereeing in order to complement the information requested by the first and second team coaching staff. This is a common practice among professional football clubs."

The statement also claimed:

"These kinds of outsourced services are now the duty of a professional who works for the Football Department. FC Barcelona are sorry that this information has been released precisely when the team has hit its best form of the season."

The statement concluded with the club announcing its intentions to take resource to legal means to clear its name:

"FC Barcelona shall be taking legal actions against those who are trying to tarnish the club's image with possible insinuations against its good reputation."

Barcelona are set to take on Athletic Bilbao

Barca are set to return to action on 12 March as the Blaugrana take on Athletic Bilbao in a La Liga clash at San Mames. The Catalan club is currently nine points clear of defending champions Real Madrid atop the La Liga table.

Barca will enter the contest in a rich vein of form. They have defeated Almeria (La Liga), Real Madrid (Copa del Rey Semi-final first leg), and Valencia, all by 1-0 scorelines in their last three games.

Xavi's side currently has 62 points on the board from 24 matches. Bilbao, meanwhile, are ninth with 33 points from 24 games.