UEFA to assess Real Madrid documents in ongoing Barcelona payments review

Real Madrid has sent UEFA a substantial amount of documents concerning Barcelona’s payments to former Spanish referees’ official José María Enríquez Negreira, UEFA confirmed on Thursday, 1 October. Its ethics and disciplinary inspectors will assess the submission as part of an existing review, a step that puts new material before investigators without establishing wrongdoing or opening a new case.

The development matters because UEFA’s review has remained open since 2023, while Barcelona has continued to play in European competitions. UEFA has confirmed receipt of the documents and the inspectors’ intention to assess them. It has not announced a conclusion about the payments or specified what action, if any, will follow the assessment.

What Real Madrid sent to UEFA

The contents of Real Madrid’s dossier have not been made public in the cited accounts. RTVE reported, citing sources at the club, that the submission comprised more than 50,000 pages and videos. That figure is the club sources’ account of its size; it does not establish what the material proves. RTVE said Real Madrid’s public statement did not set out the evidence in detail.

Real Madrid said the matter affects the integrity of competition and confidence in refereeing, according to RTVE. The club called for the investigation to advance as quickly as possible towards a conclusion and for the relevant bodies to make decisions in light of what it considers established facts. Those are Real Madrid’s claims and requests, not findings announced by UEFA.

Barcelona says the UEFA review was never closed

Barcelona responded that UEFA had not opened a new proceeding. In its 1 October statement, the club said the file began in 2023 with the appointment of two investigators and had never been closed. On that account, it could not have been reopened. Barcelona also reproduced UEFA’s confirmation that inspectors would assess Real Madrid’s documents within their ongoing review.

The club said it had complied with the investigators’ requests. As of its statement, Barcelona said UEFA had made no new request to it and had not forwarded Real Madrid’s complaint to the club. Barcelona said it would respond if that happened. Its statement also said the UEFA file remains subject to the outcome of criminal proceedings in Spain.

Barcelona said it had continued to receive UEFA licences and participate in UEFA competitions since the review began. RTVE described UEFA’s acknowledgement of the new documents as its first public update on the file since announcing the investigation in March 2023. Receipt of a submission therefore changes what the inspectors have to consider, while the procedural review remains the one already under way.

Why the Negreira payments are under scrutiny

The underlying case concerns payments Barcelona made over a number of years to Negreira while he was vice-president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees. RTVE reported that the payments ran from 2001 to 2018. Barcelona has said the money paid for reports on referees and technical advice, and has denied wrongdoing.

That history explains why the new submission is significant, but it does not resolve the central question of what the payments were for. Nor does UEFA’s acknowledgement establish that referees were influenced or that any match result was affected. The governing body’s stated next step is an assessment by its ethics and disciplinary inspectors, rather than a decision on guilt or a sanction.

The timing and outcome of that assessment have not been announced. Barcelona says the Spanish criminal proceeding also remains relevant to UEFA’s file. Until the dossier’s contents and any subsequent decision are disclosed, the extent to which Real Madrid’s documents alter the existing review remains unknown.