Four hours before their teams were due to meet on September 29, Barcelona president Joan Laporta furiously hung up at the end of a tense phone call with his Sevilla counterpart, Pepe Castro. Laporta had been told Sevilla’s leaders would not watch the La Liga match from Barca’s executive box, in protest over the latest developments in the Negreira case.
Since March, Barcelona have been facing corruption charges over payments totalling €7.3million (£6.3m; $7.7m at current exchange rates) made to the vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, in a case brought by the Spanish public prosecutor’s office. The case relates to payments made between 2001 and 2018.
Seven months on, there is still no conclusion in sight, although there have been some recent key developments and the topic is again dominating boardrooms and football stands around the country.
And a significant update came on Wednesday morning, with charges against Laporta himself now being considered. The Negreira case is far from over — and actually it is still evolving. The Athletic explains the latest.
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