With 50,000 pages: Real Madrid demands Barcelona be stripped of its European titles
Exciting behind-the-scenes details
The Negreira case has taken a dramatic new turn. UEFA have reopened Barcelona's file after an official move by Real Madrid, who sent the European body a huge dossier of around 50,000 pages containing thousands of documents, pieces of evidence and testimonies, demanding that the case be dealt with along with any sporting consequences it may entail.
According to the newspaper AS, the opening of the disciplinary file is now official, and the inspector assigned to the case has begun examining the documents submitted by the Spanish club.
Real Madrid, AS report, demanded that Barcelona be stripped of the titles they won during the years in which the Catalan club paid money to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the technical committee of referees in Spain.
The period under investigation runs from 2001 to 2018. During those years, AS indicate, Barcelona paid around 8.4 million euros to Negreira. UEFA now want to clarify the nature of these payments, their purpose, and whether they had any impact on competitions.
Last June, Real Madrid officially announced they had submitted a memorandum to UEFA's disciplinary bodies regarding the Negreira case. The club said the document contained evidence they believe strengthens the indications relating to long-standing payments from Barcelona to Negreira through various structures and companies.
UEFA confirmed today that they had received a "large amount" of documents from Real Madrid relating to the ongoing investigation into Barcelona in the Negreira case. The ethics and disciplinary inspectors have also obtained these documents to assess them as part of the ongoing review.
The new step, AS explain, means the case is moving to the stage of examining the evidence in detail. That involves gathering information directly from the parties concerned and listening to their testimonies, as well as giving Barcelona the chance to present its defence and observations on the file.
Aleksander Ceferin had plenty to say when the case first came to light in 2023. The UEFA president described it as one of the most serious he had seen in football, confirming at the time that it had lapsed under the statute of limitations from a sporting standpoint within Spain, while it had not done so as far as UEFA were concerned.
