The Negreira case returns: Barcelona risks a one-year exclusion from Europe
UEFA is once again examining the Negreira case after Real Madrid submitted new documents. According to Diario AS, Article 4 of the disciplinary regulations allows the governing body to exclude Barcelona from European competitions for one season, although no sanction has been imposed so far.
The shadow of the Negreira scandal is once again hanging over Barcelona. European football's governing body has reopened its review of the case after Real Madrid sent it a new batch of documents and insisted they be taken into account. UEFA confirmed that the materials have been received and will be reviewed by its disciplinary bodies.
At the heart of the case are the payments the Catalan club made to José María Enríquez Negreira, former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees in Spain.
The key question now is Article 4 of UEFA's disciplinary regulations. As Diario AS reports, it allows a club to be removed from European competitions for one season if it is proven to have been directly or indirectly involved in actions aimed at influencing the result of a match. Should UEFA reach such a conclusion, Barcelona could miss an entire European campaign.
For now, however, this remains only a possible scenario. No sanction has been imposed, and UEFA has not concluded that the Catalans breached the provision. A decision can only come after the review ends and any disciplinary proceedings that follow.
At the same time, the governing body is not bound by the timeline of the Spanish courts. According to AS, UEFA may take into account a ruling by a sports body, an arbitration panel or a court, but it is under no obligation to wait for one before acting on its own.
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