According to reports, Barcelona has been charged with bribery following a raid by the Spanish police on the Spanish football federation office.
Barcelona was formally charged with sports corruption, dishonest administration, and falsifying financial records by state prosecutors in March.
A raid was done by the Police which was part of a legal probe into the club's suspected multi-year payment of millions of euros to the vice-president of Spain's referees committee.
After the raid, Barcelona were officially charged with bribery in the Negreira case according to reports.
Police raid and Barcelona bribery charge
The Spanish police have taken their investigation further by searching the office of the referee committee at the federation according to Daily Mail.
The Guardia Civil confirmed to The Associated Press that the referee committee's offices at the federation headquarters outside of Madrid were searched.
The police claimed they had not made any arrests and were following the judge's instructions as he/she was looking into the case.
The search by the police has led to Barcelona being charged with bribery for the Negreira case.
According to an account on X, "FC Barcelona have been officially charged with "active bribery" in the Negreira case."
Meanwhile, authorities have asserted that from 2001 to 2018, the club paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former referee who served as vice-president of the federation's referees committee from 1993 to 2018.
The payments were made through businesses owned by Negreira, and now the club has been formally accused of bribery by the public prosecutor, according to the Spanish website El Debate.
However, Barcelona have refuted any misconduct or conflict of interest, claiming that while it paid for technical reports on referees, it never attempted to sway their judgments during games.
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