UEFA confirmed on Thursday that it has received "a substantial amount of documents" from Real Madrid relating to its investigation into FC Barcelona over the club's payments to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish federation's Technical Committee of Referees.
The governing body said its Ethics and Disciplinary Inspectors had also received the documents and would assess them as part of their ongoing review. The file runs to roughly 500 pages.
What Madrid want
Real Madrid said they had submitted "extensive documentation and evidence regarding events of extraordinary seriousness, which directly affect the integrity of the competition." The club asked that "the investigation proceeds with the utmost urgency until its full conclusion, and that the competent bodies take the appropriate decisions."
Florentino Pérez has been building to this for months. He had announced the dossier publicly and has called the affair "the biggest corruption case in the history of football." Madrid are also a party to the criminal case in Spain.
Barcelona's reply
Barcelona answered within hours. The club said UEFA's statement "did not equate to any new proceedings" and that the investigations opened in 2023 "have never been closed."
"The UEFA statement confirms receipt of documentation submitted by Real Madrid and indicates that the investigators will assess it within the framework of the existing investigation," the club said. Barcelona added that the statement does not open, reopen or reactivate any proceedings, says nothing about the value of what Madrid sent, and that UEFA's process remains subject to the outcome of the criminal case currently being heard in Spain.
That is the accurate reading of where things stand. UEFA opened its inquiry in July 2023 and froze it pending the Spanish courts, while allowing Barcelona to keep playing in Europe. Madrid's documents go into that same file. Nothing has been decided.
Where the Spanish case is
The criminal investigation sits with Barcelona's Court of Instruction number 1. In August the judge rejected a request from Real Madrid and the public prosecutor to extend the investigation phase by six months, and that phase formally closed on 1 September. Two witness statements, already scheduled, will be heard in November. A trial is expected in 2027.
Barcelona paid more than €7 million to companies linked to Negreira and his son Javier between 2001 and 2018. Former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu are among those under investigation. The prosecutor's charges are corruption between private parties in sport, disloyal administration and falsifying commercial documents, and the judge added bribery. Barcelona have always maintained the payments bought technical reports on referees and nothing more.
The fight between the clubs
This is now a legal battle between the two clubs as much as a disciplinary one. Barcelona have begun preliminary proceedings towards a defamation claim against Pérez, and a conciliation hearing is set for 25 November in Madrid. Joan Laporta continues to describe the allegations as a smear campaign.
For Barcelona supporters the practical point is this: UEFA has not reopened anything and has not punished anyone. It has received a pile of paper from the club's biggest rival, and it will read it alongside a criminal case that is still a long way from a verdict.
