Luis Enrique Denies Knowledge of Controversial Referee Reports Amid Negreira Case

Former FC Barcelona coach Luis Enrique appeared in court last Friday to discuss the ongoing Negreira case, which investigates whether certain payments made by the club may have impacted refereeing decisions in La Liga over the years.

During his testimony, Luis Enrique, now the head coach of Paris Saint-Germain and who managed Barcelona from 2014 to 2017, strongly denied any awareness of the controversial refereeing reports central to the scandal affecting the club. He was questioned on the same day as former coach Ernesto Valverde and the club’s president, Joan Laporta.

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According to audio recordings disclosed by Spanish media outlets El Larguero (SER) and El Chiringuito, Luis Enrique asserted that neither he nor his coaching staff ever consulted or received these documents. “In the six years I was a coach, no one showed me these reports,” he stated in front of the investigating judge.

Ernesto Valverde also denies using these documents

Similarly, Ernesto Valverde, who coached Barcelona from 2017 to 2020, maintained a consistent narrative, claiming he never utilized such refereeing analyses despite their alleged availability at the club. “I never used them. This option is generally available in clubs. It exists at Athletic Bilbao and may have existed at Barça. I neither sought nor desired it. My assistant receives them here in Bilbao, but I was neither aware of them nor interested,” he explained.

The Negreira case revolves around alleged payments exceeding €7.3 million made by FC Barcelona to José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees, between 2001 and 2018. Prosecutors are investigating whether these payments could have influenced refereeing decisions, a claim firmly rejected by the Catalan club, which maintains these were merely advisory services.