Barcelona call on Liga boss Tebas to quit over ref corruption affair

Barcelona on Monday called on La Liga president Javier Tebas to quit over “false” accusations allegedly made by him concerning their referee corruption case.

The Spanish giants made the demand after a newspaper claimed Tebas had written to the Spanish public prosecutor accusing two former Barca presidents of wrongdoing.

Last month the Catalan club was charged with corruption after payments of more than 7.3 million euros ($7.8 million) to a company owned by a former refereeing chief were uncovered.

In a statement following La Vanguardia’s report Barcelona claimed Tebas “presented false proof” to the public prosecutor “to incriminate our club”.

“FC Barcelona wants to express its deep anger, indignation and disgust,” the statement read.

It went on to demand that Tebas “appears in public to provide answers”, adding “for the dignity and respect of the presidency of La Liga Mr Tebas should resign”.

Tebas in response denied “accusing anyone” in a post on social media.

Last month the club said they paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former referee and ex-vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football federation (CTA) between 1994 and 2018, for reports and advice related to refereeing.

In Monday’s statement a bruised Barcelona claimed they were the victims “of a media lynching for something that never happened – Barca have never bought off referees”.

As well as the club and Enriquez Negreira, two of the club’s former presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, are facing the same charge of corruption.