Protests against Barcelona: Sevilla threw banknotes, Bilbao chanted relegation

The whole Spain is now moved by the ‘Negreira case’, i.e. the case where Barcelona paid millions of euros to the vice-president of the referees’ commission. And with the club and its officials indicted last week, protests are growing in stadiums.

Barcelona is not facing easy times. Last week, the prosecution accused Barcelona of bribing referees, a hugely serious offence.

The club does not deny that it paid Enriquez Negreiro over €7 million in 2016-2018, but it cannot yet explain its payments properly. The original answer was that Barcelona paid for reports on referees and Negreira advised players on how to behave.

The problem, however, is when coaches who managed Barcelona at the time, such as Ernesto Valverde, let it be known that they had not seen any reports.

Now, moreover, an invoice has surfaced where Barcelona paid Negreiro in 2014 “for watching the 2014 World Cup matches”. The whole thing is very suspicious to say the least and will therefore be investigated in court.

However, the fans are clear and are protesting in a big way. All the La Liga clubs have expressed their concern about the disruption of La Liga’s regularity and Real Madrid, the only one that has stuck by the Blaugranas so far, will probably oppose Barcelona, as Florentino Pérez has a superior relationship with Joan Laporta thanks to the Superliga battle.

Sevilla took on Almería at the Ramón Sanchéz Pizjuán, but the fans first started chanting in Barcelona’s honour before cheering for their club.

“Corruption, in the federation!” chanted the entire stadium in Andalusia. In addition, banknotes with the image of Barcelona president Joan Laporta flew through the air.

It was even more so in the evening match, when Barcelona took on Athletic. The Catalans in Bilbao had to listen to jeering shouts of “second league, olé.” throughout the match, because Barcelona is threatened with relegation.

Special banknotes flew through the air again, this time with the Barcelona emblem and the word “Mafia”.

Source: La Liga, Athletic, Sevilla