When you think of great soccer teams, you think of Barcelona. But now when you think of Barcelona, one word will come to mind: cheaters!
Sure, baseball had its sign-stealing scandal, and football had Deflategate, but no money ever changed hands. But it did in Barcelona.
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One of soccer’s elite winners is about to have their reputation flushed down the drain. State prosecutors in Spain are looking into Barcelona’s payments of millions of pounds over nearly 20 years to former ref Jose Negreira, who was part of Spain’s refereeing committee. Barcelona paid him £7 million until it stopped in 2018. Negreira’s job was to inform the refs of which games they would be involved in. Well, isn’t that convenient!
Barcelona admits they paid the money, but said it was for reports on refs and young players?! Negreira says he did nothing wrong, except pocket £7 million to write the reports. No one knows if the money made its way to other refs that happened to be on the pitch when Barcelona was playing. But just the appearance of secret payments stains the entire sport and makes you wonder if teams will do anything to win, as long as they don’t get caught!