UEFA Opens Investigation into Barcelona Payments

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced on Thursday that it has opened a formal investigation into the Spanish club Barcelona regarding a potential violation of the regulatory framework governing European football due to payments made by the club to a company owned by a senior referee official. A court in Barcelona approved last week to consider the case after prosecutors filed a complaint about what they claimed were payments amounting to €7.3 million ($7.95 million) made to companies owned by José María Enríquez Negreira from 2001 to 2018. Negreira served as vice president of the referees' committee at the Spanish Football Federation from 1993 to 2018 under then-president Victoriano Sánchez Arminio.