Barcelona receive MASSIVE fine in fresh scandal

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 12 May 2023 10:08 BST
• 3 min read

Barcelona have received a fine of nearly €16 million for financial irregularities that date back to 2015, El Confidencial reports.

The Camp Nou side have recently been fighting the Negreira case, a scandal in which they are accused of paying the former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing body to do them favours. Barcelona have strenuously denied that this is what payments were for, however.

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The fine of €15.7m, meanwhile, is entirely unrelated and dates back to the era in which Josip Maria Bartomeu was president of the club.

Barcelona have denied any wrongdoing and issuing a statement that indicates they have not been sanctioned.

It is claimed by the report that this was an investigation that began in 2019 with relation to accounts four years previous.

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What were Barcelona guilty of?

Barcelona are alleged to have been found to have made irregularities in the payments of several players.

For example, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol and Pedro were found to have received Audi cars as payment in kind that was hidden from the tax authorities.

Similarly, charter flights were paid for by the club for certain players and went undeclared to the tax authorities.

On top of this, Barcelona are said to have incorrectly accounted for the income of transfer fees from players such as Arda Turan, who departed to join Galatasaray in 2020 after a loan spell at Basaksehir, and Alex Song, who went to Rubin Kazan in 2016 after an unsuccessful stay.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of any of the players.

The €16m fine that Barcelona have supposedly received for this financial mismanagement casts another shadow on the club, which is already struggling economically to fund the summer transfers of players that they wish to sign.

Lionel Messi is the most striking example of a player who wishes to come to Camp Nou, but Financial Fair Play (FFP) restrictions may block this.

It is unclear how this latest potential setback will impact Barcelona’s budget in the short-term, but with cuts planned across the board, such a fine is entirely unwelcome.