Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, referred to the Barcelona refereeing scandal as one of the “most serious” cases he had ever seen.
A UEFA investigation into alleged payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee, is ongoing against the LaLiga leaders.
The newspaper El Pais reported that Negreira’s company, DASNIL 95 SL, produced written reports and DVD assessments of referees for the club prior to games. It has been claimed that the total payments from Barcelona exceeded €7 million, spanning the years 2001 to 2018.
Barcelona maintain their innocence as prosecutors pursue charges against the Catalan side for alleged corruption, though LaLiga president Javier Tebas admitted the league is unable to sanction the club due to a statute of limitations in place.
However, Ceferin confirmed no such restrictions exist for UEFA and spoke about the significance of the allegations.
“The situation is extremely serious. It is so serious that, in my opinion, it is one of the most serious [situations] in football that I have ever seen,” he told Slovenian newspaper Ekipa.
“I cannot comment directly on this for two reasons. Firstly, because we have an independent disciplinary committee in charge of this. And secondly, because I have not dealt with this matter in detail.
“At the level of [LaLiga], of course, the matter is time-barred and can have no competitive consequences, but the proceedings are ongoing at the level of prosecutors. But as far as UEFA is concerned, there is nothing time-barred.”