The Negrera case returns to the forefront of the conflict between Real Madrid and Barcelona before the upcoming El Clásico match, on Sunday, after the accusations and criticism related to Spanish arbitration escalated, at a time when the Madrid club’s supporters are awaiting developments in investigations related to financial payments made by Barcelona to companies linked to a former official in the referees’ committee, amid the belief among some that sanctions against the Catalan club are now a matter of time.
According to a report published by “The Athletic”, the issue became a main focus in Real Madrid’s media discourse, which intensified its criticism of Spanish arbitration, and linked a number of controversial decisions to the file of payments amounting to 8.4 million euros, which Barcelona made between 2001 and 2018 to companies controlled by José María Enríquez Negrera, the former vice president of the referees’ committee of the Spanish Football Federation.
The case came to light in February 2023, when Spanish Radio Cadena Ser revealed Barcelona's payments to one of the companies linked to Negrira, before the judicial investigations expanded to include former and current officials at the club.
Barcelona and Negrira repeatedly denied committing any violations, stressing that the money was paid in exchange for reports and consultations related to professional arbitration, while club president Joan Laporta stressed, during a press conference in April 2023, that Barcelona did not engage in any activity aimed at changing the results of competitions or obtaining an illegal sporting advantage.
The judicial investigations included statements by Laporta and former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as former coaches Luis Enrique and Ernesto Valverde, and a number of administrative officials.
Javier Tebas, President of the Spanish League, explained that the League cannot impose sports sanctions due to the statute of limitations for potential violations in accordance with sports regulations, while the possibility of prosecution remains in accordance with the Criminal Code.
In June 2023, UEFA investigators decided not to impose sanctions on Barcelona, which continued to participate in the Champions League, despite ongoing investigations into the case.
The dispute between the two clubs escalated when Laporta described Real Madrid as “the regime’s team,” in reference to the period of General Francisco Franco’s rule between 1939 and 1975. The official channel of the Madrid club responded with a video clip that included old statements by its historic president, Santiago Bernabéu.
At first, Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez seemed cautious in criticizing Barcelona, especially during the period of cooperation between the two clubs within the European Super League project, before his tone clearly changed.
During a press conference last May, Perez confirmed that referees from the Negrera era were still officiating matches in the Spanish League, announcing the preparation of a comprehensive 500-page file to be sent to the European Football Association.
Real Madrid's official channel has become a major platform for criticizing referees, as it constantly recalls previous arbitration decisions and links them to the case, especially before major matches or following negative results.
After Real Madrid lost to Atletico Madrid 1-2 in September, the club’s official website published a report entitled “A disastrous refereeing performance decides the derby,” while the television channel’s analysts escalated their criticism of the referees.
The controversy extended to Spanish media, including “El Debate”, “OK Diario” and “El Espanyol”, in addition to the television program “El Chiringuito”, which repeatedly addressed accusations of arbitration bias against Real Madrid.
One of the articles published in “El Dipaté” sparked a sharp disagreement with Tebas, after the president of the Spanish League likened Real Madrid’s media strategy to the propaganda methods used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, which prompted the Madrid club to demand his dismissal.
In a related context, a number of analysts, influencers, and Madrid fans launched a website called “Negrira Gate,” which collects refereeing statistics and presents historical comparisons that those responsible believe support the allegations of Barcelona benefiting from the referees’ decisions.
Lawyer Juan Luis Martín de Pozuelo, one of the website's founders, said that the discovery of Barcelona's payments to a prominent official in the arbitration system made many Real Madrid fans feel that they had been deceived, especially during seasons in which their team succeeded in Europe without achieving the Spanish League title.
Portuguese Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid coach, brought up the issue again during a television interview last August, stressing that he felt there were abnormalities in the arbitration decisions during his first period with the team between 2010 and 2013, even though he did not know Negrera at the time.
Mourinho's criticism continued during the current season, as he attended a press conference after one of Atletico Madrid's matches carrying papers containing arbitration cases that he considered deserved red cards against the opponent's players.
He also criticized the timing of the announcement of the penalty to suspend Vinicius Junior for 4 matches, after his expulsion against Villarreal, considering that the issuance of the decision two hours before an important European match against Roma raises questions.
The protest atmosphere extended to the stands of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where fans chanted slogans accusing the Spanish Federation of corruption, and the club’s fans raised a banner bearing the phrase “It is not football... it is Tebas and Negrera.”
During the 4-1 victory over Seville, chants were heard accusing Laporta of continuing to push, while Arda Guler's failure to punish him for a possible elbow intervention in one of the shots sparked controversy among Barcelona supporters.
At the European level, the European Football Association announced in early October that it had received the file that Perez promised to send, explaining that the documents would be subject to evaluation by ethics and disciplinary inspectors as part of the ongoing investigation.
Barcelona responded that the European Union had not opened new procedures against it, stressing that the announcement related to the ongoing investigation, and not to the start of an independent case.
Although some Madrid circles expect Barcelona to be excluded from the European Championships, no official indicators have been issued confirming the imminent imposition of sanctions, while the European Union has refrained from commenting on the details of the investigation until a decision is issued by the competent disciplinary authority.
As for the Spanish judicial investigation, which began in March 2023, it is still in the stage of collecting evidence and hearing testimonies, with sessions set for mid-November to hear Gerard Lopez, the former Barcelona player and coach of the reserve team between 2015 and 2018, and Antonio Alonso, the former official in one of the stadiums.
In another development, Barcelona began legal proceedings against Perez, accusing him of making defamatory statements during his press conference in May, and set November 25 as the date for a reconciliation session, threatening to file a criminal complaint if the Real Madrid president does not publicly retract his statements.
These developments place the upcoming “Clásico” under an exceptional microscope, as arbitration decisions have become part of a conflict that goes beyond sporting competition, amid a clear division between the fans of the two clubs regarding the truth of the issue and its possible repercussions.
Although investigations are continuing in Spain and the European Union, Barcelona's responsibility for fixing the results of the matches has not yet been proven in a final judicial ruling, nor has a European decision been issued to exclude it from competitions, which makes the circulating expectations about the downfall of the Catalan club or its punishment linked to the results of procedures that have not yet been decided.
The Spanish Football Federation announced, on Saturday, the appointment of referee Juan Martinez Munuera to manage the upcoming El Clasico confrontation, Sunday, between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the Camp Nou stadium, in the fifth match led by the Spanish referee between the two rivals, after three of their previous four confrontations ended in victory for the Madrid team.
Martinez Munuera is 44 years old and began his career in the Spanish League in 2013, before joining the list of international referees at FIFA in 2015, while Javier Iglesias Villanueva will be responsible for the video assistant referee technology during the confrontation.
According to “The Athletic” network, the referee, born in the Spanish city of Benidorm, previously officiated the Spanish King’s Cup final between Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona in the 2020-2021 season, in addition to the Spanish Super Cup final between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the 2023-2024 season.
At the international level, Munuera managed a number of matches in the Champions League, the European League, and the European Conference League, in addition to international matches, the most recent of which was the match between Ireland and Israel in the second-level European Nations League, which was held behind closed doors. Despite his experience spanning more than a decade, he has never managed matches in a major international tournament, nor has he received a European assignment during the current season.
His relationship with Barcelona carries a history of arbitration disputes, after the Catalan club submitted an official complaint to the Spanish Federation, last February, following its loss to Atletico Madrid by four goals to nothing in the first leg of the King’s Cup semi-final, a match that Munuera officiated.
The complaint included five axes, most notably the inconsistency of arbitration decisions, the lack of transparency in the use of video technology, and the standards used to summon referees to review cases via the side screen, in addition to the demand for the adoption of a new disciplinary system to punish referees when they commit serious errors or negligence.
That confrontation witnessed the cancellation of a goal by Barcelona defender Pau Cobarci due to offside, after a lengthy review of the video technology, in addition to the expulsion of Eric Garcia in the last minutes, after the yellow card famous by Munuera turned into red after reviewing the situation.
One of Barcelona's most prominent disagreements with the referee dates back to the October 2020 Clasico, when the Catalan team lost to Real Madrid 3-1, after a controversial penalty kick was awarded after Clement Lenglet pulled Sergio Ramos' shirt inside the penalty area.
Munuera did not initially award the violation, before video technology intervened and awarded the penalty kick. This prompted Dutch coach Ronald Koeman, who was leading Barcelona at the time, to criticize the refereeing decisions, considering that video technology was being used to make decisions against his team.
On the other hand, the Spanish referee does not have a calm relationship with Real Madrid, which directed sharp criticism at him on its official television channel on multiple occasions.
In 2023, following his appointment to manage the Copa del Rey Clásico, Real Madrid broadcast a critical report that dealt with previous refereeing positions, recalling the exciting 2-2 draw against Sevilla in the 2020-2021 season, in which the club considered that its decisions affected its chances of competing for the Spanish League title.
In March 2024, Real Madrid filed a complaint against Munuera due to what he described as negligence in drafting the Osasuna match report, after he accused him of not including the insults and offensive chants that Brazilian Vinicius Junior was subjected to from some fans of the opposing team.
The Madrid club's objections are not limited to the arena's governance; His official channel previously criticized Javier Iglesias Villanueva, who will take charge of video technology in the next El Clásico.
Villanueva's name at Real Madrid is linked to two matches that sparked widespread controversy, the first against Valencia in the 2020-2021 season, when three penalty kicks were awarded against the Madrid team, and the second against Espanyol in February 2025, when the video referee did not intervene after Carlos Romero intervened on Kylian Mbappe from behind.
The criticism intensified after Romero later scored the winning goal for Espanyol, 1-0. Real Madrid TV considered that the player's continuation on the field represented a serious refereeing error.
The appointment of Munuera comes in light of the continuing controversy over Spanish arbitration, while the most prominent criticism of the Portuguese Jose Mourinho this season focused on leaking the names of the referees to the media before the official announcement of their assignments.
In August 2025, the Spanish Football Federation announced the adoption of a new mechanism requiring the names of match referees to be revealed before four o’clock in the afternoon on the day before each match, in an attempt to organize the process of announcing arbitration appointments.
Munuera now faces a new test in one of the most followed football matches, amid a history of objections from both sides, and anticipation for his performance in a confrontation that carries great importance in the competition between the two traditional rivals.
