LAS ROZAS (MADRID), March 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general secretary of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Andreu Camps, expressed this Thursday “the absolute and complete confidence” of the body in the arbitration group despite the information related to the ‘Negreira case’, and warned that they have been able to “verify that a person with government responsibility” was aware of the facts and “did not report it”, and that a member of the estate did not want to collaborate in the questionnaire that was sent.
“I want to express the absolute and complete confidence of this RFEF and its president with the entire arbitration group and that no action that could be proven, even if it is the objective of criminal law, can discredit them and make them doubt their full honesty. If it is proven something, we flatly refuse that this should have negative consequences for our honest and professional members of the arbitration group,” Camps said in an appearance before the media together with Luis Medina Cantalejo, president of the CTA.
The federation director made a chronology of the events, limiting himself to giving “objective explanations that cannot harm the investigation that is being developed and that must continue to be developed”, and that for the organization “the important thing is to reach the end of this investigation “. In this sense, he made it clear that his legal services have indicated that at this time it would be “counterproductive” to file a complaint as the Catalan collegiate Xavier Estrada Fernández has already done individually, a position that he considered “respectable”.
“But that of the RFEF must also be respected. If the Prosecutor’s Office denounces, the RFEF will appear, if the judge admits it, the RFEF will appear and if not, the RFEF will have to see if with the information it has available it can file a complaint “, he added. “If a complaint has not been filed immediately, it is because with the information available it would not allow it to be done, now they are only conjectures that are taking shape through the investigation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” he clarified.
The manager stressed that the means available to the Tax Agency (AEAT) and the Prosecutor’s Office “are different in intensity and legal capacity from those that this RFEF and the sports administration may have.” “We understand that the main weight must be carried by those entities with legal and, above all, coercive capacity and with the means to be able to carry it out completely and exhaustively. Our role is to actively contribute. If there were a crime committed, we would file a complaint, but We understand that our function now is to be a collaborating entity”, he settled.
Camps confirmed that the investigation being carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office “does not last days or weeks” and that during the investigation carried out by the federation they have been able to “verify that someone knowing first-hand” the facts did not denounce them “when they had a government responsibility”, although he did not give any name despite being asked about the figure of Albert Soler.
In addition, it reported that all the referees and reporting delegates, except one, had contributed to the internal investigation. “Only one arbitrator neither provided nor answered nor sent the requested information,” he confessed. “I confirm that the questionnaire that some media have published and that the CTA passed on to its members is correct. The RFEF deplores the attitude of the member of the group that brought it to the attention of the media,” Camps continued.
He insisted on “not issuing any value judgment or any advance on decisions of other instances” and that the federative entity will deliver “all the relevant information” that it possesses. “It would be reckless to disseminate any type of information that is not first brought to the attention of the judicial, governmental and sports bodies,” he warned.
The director described the current situation as “complex”, but recalled that with the arrival of Luis Rubiales to the presidency, the CTA was completely renewed, dismissing José María Enríquez Negreira, among others, who sent them three burofaxes a year later “alleging that he had been dismissed irregularly and requesting his reinstatement or some type of economic agreement”. “None were answered and we are not aware of any demand,” he said.
They also implemented actions to avoid the “existence of conflicts of interest in management and executive positions” and hired a company to monitor any “type of manipulation” that, in its “various alerts”, never informed them of any related to the ‘Negreira case’.
REQUIREMENTS OF THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE IN 2022 REFERRED TO ENRÍQUEZ NEGREIRA
The general secretary stressed that as soon as they learned of the information in the media, Luis Rubiales decided to put everything “in the hands of the Integrity Department”, which is the one in charge of compiling all the information on the CTA and FC Barcelona, ??and to “act accordingly”. “This information is reserved. First you have to bring it to the attention of the judicial, governmental and sports organizations. If they understand that it is public, we will do it,” he argued.
Camps also indicated that last Friday the UEFA Integration Department asked them for “complete information on this subject”, which they sent him on Monday and made it “available to them in case any other type of action had to be carried out”. “We have offered ourselves for any other action that they told us, but I am not a competition or disciplinary judge or director of Integrity”, he sentenced when asked about possible sanctions from the European body against FC Barcelona.
The federation general secretary also acknowledged that the company Dasnil, created by Enríquez Negreira, and Soccercamp, owned by his son Javier, invoiced the RFEF for some services, and that Javier Enríquez Romero received various payments between 2005 and 2012, “of between 250 euros and little more than 13,000 euros (for his participation in the technical ‘staff’ of EURO 2008)”, but that they had not seen anything irregular.
The leader also reported that when the AEAT contacted the agency “on October 18, 2021” to find out “economic data, functions and regulations of the CTA”, it was not “related to any person” and that they now understand ” regarding this matter.”
“We have learned that it was the AEAT itself that filed the complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office, which made two requests to us in June and October 2022, yes referring to Enríquez Negreira and his functions in the CTA, the designation system and with what dates of communicated in advance,” Camps said.
