Barcelona president Joan Laporta met with UEFA chief Aleskander Ceferin on Thursday in Slovenia to discuss the LaLiga club’s refereeing scandal, sources have told ESPN.
Last month, UEFA opened an investigation into the payments made by Barcelona to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, former vice president of the country’s refereeing committee.
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LaLiga cannot sanction Barca because any possible punishment is time-barred, but UEFA could act if the club is found guilty of any wrongdoing.
With Barca facing a new legal threat from UEFA, including a possible Champions League ban, Laporta travelled to Slovenia to personally explain to Ceferin details of the club’s internal investigation into the case.
Sources told ESPN that Thursday’s meeting also served for Ceferin and Barca to bring closer their positions regarding the proposed Super League project, which UEFA are opposed to.
Prosecutors in Spain have also filed corruption charges against Barca over the scandal. Negreira’s company received almost €7 million ($7.5m) from Barca from 2001 to 2018.
Earlier this month, Ceferin lamented that the case is “one of the most serious [situations] in football that I have ever seen.”
Speaking in a news conference on Monday and in his address at LaLiga’s assembly, Laporta reiterated Barca’s innocence and said the club never made payments to benefit from refereeing in any competition.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas said after the assembly that the explanations offered by Laporta were not convincing and did not address the doubts that clubs had regarding the scandal.
