On the evening of March 23, The Athletic reported that Barca has just continued to be investigated in the case of using money to bribe referees in previous seasons. The person mentioned is Vice President of the Spanish Referee Committee - Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. The Nou Camp team is currently facing 3 obstacles from the Spanish Football Federation, the La Liga organizing committee and arch-rivals Real Madrid.
Not only under domestic pressure, Barca has been caught eye by UEFA. The organization has authorized the Institute for ethics and Discipline to review the allegations against the Catalan team.
"According to Article 31(4) of UEFA's Disciplinary Regulations, the Institute for ethics and Discipline has been assigned to conduct an investigation into the possibility of UEFA's legal framework being violated by FC Barcelona in connection with the case of Mr. Negreira (collectively known as the "Caso Negreira") case.
More details will be provided in the coming time" - UEFA announced on March 23.
Meanwhile, La Liga confirmed that they cannot unilaterally investigate the incident due to the troubles that have been caused for 3 years. La Liga President - Javier Tebas confirmed that La Liga will not be able to unilaterally impose penalties on Barcelona. It's up to UEFA now because in terms of football, they are the only unit that can issue a penalty and also a unit with great influence, enough to keep the Blaugrana out of the European Cup if the violations are considered "unforgivable".
According to The Athletic, the Spanish Football Federation and the country's Senior Sports Festival will respect all legal procedures. Before making any statements or actions, they should consider very carefully.
The opposite is true to UEFA's handling of the incident. They could issue Barcelona with penalties such as warnings, reprimand, and fines, most seriously elimination from the European Cup system of this organization. Not only that, the form of revoking Barca's past titles in the continental playground is also a form of consideration.
In this case, not only Barca is the place for legal speculators to concentrate, but Negreira is also. He is facing corruption charges similar to those former Barca chairmen Josep Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell have faced. Negreira has denied any allegations that he influenced the referee's decisions to gain an advantage for Barca.
Of course, up to now, all reactions from Barca are still denial. The Nou Camp team explained that they have hired an independent consultant to synthesize and provide data on referees, in addition to the professional issues of the "black shirt king" group.
