Former Vice President of the Refereeing Committee in Spain, José María Enríquez Negreira, is set to testify as a defendant after a judge dismissed his claim of dementia. Negreira's companies received payments from Barcelona, and he had previously cited his condition as a reason for being incapable of being questioned. However, the judge ruled that while Negreira does suffer from some memory impairment, he is mentally capable of appearing in court and potentially facing prosecution.
Barcelona had paid Negreira's companies over €7 million ($7.3m) between 2001 and 2018, during his tenure as the vice president of the committee. Prior to this role, Negreira was a referee in the Spanish top flight. Last March, he and his son, Javier Enríquez Romero, were charged with corruption in relation to these payments. Barcelona itself, along with former club presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep María Bartomeu, as well as former executives Oscar Grau and Albert Soler, were also charged.
