Real Madrid renews Negreira case challenge to UEFA

Real Madrid has renewed its challenge to Barcelona before UEFA, placing the Negreira case back at the centre of European football’s disciplinary process. The Spanish club says the material concerns conduct that could damage competition integrity and confidence in refereeing.

UEFA confirmed it received the documents on 17 June. The submission reportedly runs to 50,000 pages and will be assessed by the governing body’s ethics and disciplinary investigators as part of its existing review. That preliminary inquiry, opened in 2023, remains active while the Spanish legal proceedings continue.

The case concerns payments of more than €7.3 million allegedly made by Barcelona and former officials to José María Enríquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018. Negreira was previously vice-president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees. Barcelona has maintained that the payments covered arbitration consultancy work, while Real Madrid has treated them as evidence of corruption.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez had indicated in May that the club would send UEFA a comprehensive file. Barcelona has stressed that UEFA’s confirmation of receiving the documents does not represent a judgment on their substance or evidential weight. The European process therefore continues without a finding against the Catalan club.