Seeking to defend their profession, Spain’s referees gathered in Madrid on Thursday after a scandal involving Barcelona paying millions of dollars over several years to a former referee acting as their vice president.
Barcelona denies any wrongdoing and says the money was for reports on referees and youth players. Still, a Spanish state prosecutor probes the venture after the country’s tax officials get involved.
"We want to make clear that no one has more at stake than we do in assuring that justice is served," referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez read from the manifesto in the name of the entire body of football match officials.
Sanchez Martinez expressed "disgust" at the case and insisted the alleged actions of one person "cannot tarnish our image and the honor" of Spanish referees.
The manifesto hoped that the "alleged acts by a person that formed part of this house in his time won’t stain our image and the honor of this great body."
Several hundred active and former referees and referee assistants attended the first news conference given by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) since the scandal was broken by Spain’s Cadena SER radio station on Feb. 15.
The refereeing body tried to distance itself from the relationship between Barcelona and former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was a part of the Spanish soccer federation’s refereeing committee from 1994-2018. Local media reports say Barcelona’s payments to Negreira reached 7 million euros ($7.5 million) between 2001 and 2018 when they stopped.
While not confirming the exact figures, Barcelona has acknowledged the regular payment to Negreira during those years. The club has hired an independent firm to carry out its investigation and is expected to give a more detailed account of the relationship with Negreira once that is concluded.
There have been no reports from officials or in the media of the payments being linked to favoritism toward Barcelona by referees. Moreover, many former referees who were active when Negreira was their vice president have said they never received any pressure from him or other officials.
They also said his role was to inform referees what competition they had been designated each season, but not which games.
RFEF Secretary-General Andreu Camps, second to president Luis Rubiales, on Thursday, said his organization has complied with requests for information from Spain’s tax office and prosecutors and kept UEFA informed.
"UEFA has requested information from the RFEF, the RFEF has replied and has provided all the information it has at the moment," Camps told the news conference at the federation’s headquarters in Las Rozas.
Camps said the RFEF "has offered to take any other action that UEFA itself tells us to take."
Accompanied by the president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Luis Medina Cantalejo, Camps said the RFEF Integrity Department is studying the "Negreira case" after receiving the information they requested from Barcelona, the CTA, and the RFEF.
The affair has shadowed the refereeing establishment that the current CTA chief wanted to clear up.
"There is an anti-referee climate, and people are saying that (referees) were bought; there is no evidence, no proof to say that a referee is dishonest," said Medina Cantalejo.
"If there is anything, people have allegedly taken advantage of their position to make a profit."
Camps and Medina Cantalejo said all the referees except one responded to a questionnaire, asking if they had had any contact with Negreira or his son.
"We called him (this referee) to ask him what was going on, and to this day, he has not responded to a request from his company, which is the Federation," said Medina Cantalejo, without revealing the name of the referee in question.