Víctor Francos Stands with FC Barcelona in the Ongoing Negreira Scandal
By Shree Desai
The infamous Negreira case has affected FC Barcelona's image and genuineness publicly. If allegations are to be believed, the club paid José María Enríquez Negreira, the then vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees [CTA] €7.3 million, to favour the Catalan giants in refereeing decisions.
The Spanish Giants have denied the claims stating that the payments sent to Negreira weren't to bribe the referee vice-president. It was remittance for providing the club with the reports of refereeing, which is a very common practice in football.
Following the accusations, Barça released a statement on the same day. The club claimed that it hired the company [Barcelona sent the payments to a company owned by Negreira] to 'provide video reports of youth players from other Spanish clubs.'
Accompanying the videos were 'technical reports' of 'professional refereeing' which was requested by the first and second team coaching staff. In March, Joan Laporta confidently claimed that,
"Barcelona has never bought referees"
The Víctor Francos Case
Recently Víctor Francos, the president of the Higher Sports Council[CSD] said(via Marca),
"I am convinced that it is not demonstrable that any referee was purchased"
The Council president also bashed Joan Laporta against his claims related to Madrid. The Barça president professed that there is a current trend which favours Real Madrid, which he called 'sociological Madridism'. Francos denied these claims too,
"I don't know what whether or not there is "sociological Madridism" has to do with the fact that more than 7 million are paid to a person responsible for Spanish arbitration... I believe that what the president of Barcelona was referring to is that there is a current that favors Madrid 'per se', and I don't agree. I don't think there is any current that favors any club or any fan 'per se'"
Víctor also said that Barcelona and Madrid are the clubs that should complain the least, possibly referring to their stature in world football.