Former director of FC Barcelona Josep Contreras.FC Barcelona
The name of former FC Barcelona director Josep Contreras, who died in December, is appearing more and more in the scandal surrounding the club’s millions in payments to refereeing director José María Enríquez Negreira and his son, sports coach Javier Enríquez. The investigations of the public prosecutor’s office have shown that the payments to the son were not made directly, but were routed through Tresep, an instrument company owned by the ex-director culé. In exchange for his mediation, Contreras is said to have received commissions, which in many cases amounted to 50% of the amount the club paid for the coach’s services, EL PAÍS has learned from court sources.
The investigation has confirmed that FC Barcelona paid almost seven million euros to José María Enríquez Negreira at least since 2001 (under the presidency of Joan Gaspart) and until July 2018 – when another president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, renounced the service . who was all this time vice-president of the Technical Referees Committee, the governing body of the members of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). According to the testimony of the former head of arbitration before the tax authority, the association sought its services (“verbal” advice without documentary support) to ensure “neutral” arbitration that would not harm it. So far, the investigation has not been able to prove the real reason for these payments, nor the destination that Enríquez Negreira gave to the money that he regularly withdrew in cash.
Payments to the former referee were made through Dasnil, a sole proprietorship based in a house in the Horta-Guinardó district (Barcelona) whose business includes ‘promotional services for companies’ and ‘execution of sports videos’, among others. Enríquez Negreira founded it in 1995, a year after becoming the number two referee in Spain. Dasnil lived for and for Barça, which was practically his only client and source of income, according to a comparison of tax authority data with the company’s balance sheets.
The investigation into Barça’s payments began in May 2022. The tax authority had opened an investigation into Dasnil for accounting irregularities over three years (2016, 2017 and 2018) and discovered invoices for no apparent reason. In 2016, Barça paid €532,728 to the former college company, which reported sales of €567,136 that year, meaning the Barça club accounted for almost 94% of its revenues. Something very similar happened the following year.
In July 2018, Barça stopped payments, leading to an angry protest from Enríquez Negreira. That year, Barça paid him €318,200 and the company announced sales for a very similar amount (329,373). The following year, without its star client and amid threats to expose irregularities, Dasnil’s sales plummeted to €7,348.
The former referee’s son is Javier Enríquez, a renowned professional in the world of football who came to advise the Spanish team. He was the sole administrator and authorized officer of Dasnil and, according to the commercial register, continues to act as managing director, purchasing manager and commercial manager. However, the investigation assumes that it was his father who held the reins of the company. Also the person who, at a certain moment, opened a new access door to the club through an old acquaintance: Josep Contreras.
Investigators have concluded that the coach did work for Barça, more or less expensive: before each game, he sent written technical reports, sometimes accompanied by a DVD, in which he analyzed the behavior of the players referees in question. This material was delivered to the club’s office, who sent it to first-team and affiliate coaching staff to see if it could be useful ahead of the next game, always at national competitions. The members of Barça’s board of directors who testified before prosecutors – including Bartomeu, who did so as an investigating officer – and Enríquez Jr. have presented the reports as proof of the reality of the work.
died at Christmas
Javier Enríquez manages and is the sole shareholder of Soccercam, although when he started (2002) his father and sister acted as deputies. However, despite the fact that he was the provider of the services, he didn’t bill Barça directly. According to investigative sources for this newspaper, the bills were sent through Tresep, an instrument company owned by Contreras. In exchange for activating the relevant contacts at the club, Contreras allegedly received a commission which, according to the same sources, was in many cases up to 50% of the bill.
Analysis of the Soccercam accounts shows that in 2017 they declared a turnover of 114,780 euros, which fell to 72,845 the following year, almost in the same proportion as Dasnil’s revenues had fallen: in July, Barça had closed the tap and renounced them Services. Like his father’s company, Soccercam’s sales plummeted in 2019 (just $16,089), and while they recovered in later years, they never reached previous levels.
El Mundo newspaper revealed on Saturday the existence of 19 bills with very similar concepts (‘provision of educational and sports services’, including ‘issuance of reports’) that Barça paid to Tresep, between 2015 and 2015 alone totaled more than 728,000 euros in 2018. This figure almost certainly represents the total amount paid in this way, since Tresep was founded in 2014.
Contreras’ testimony seemed crucial to investigators. Perhaps it could have clarified why Barça signed the former referee. But they didn’t arrive in time to quote him. He died on December 25th. As a board member of Josep Lluís Núñez, Joan Gaspart and later Bartomeu, he was always linked to Barça through the club’s subsidiary and social committee. Thanks to his friendship with Ángel María Villar, he became the link between the Barça club and the federation. He was under investigation for alleged irregularities in the awarding of works by the Catalan Football Federation, of which he was vice-president.
Since its inception in 2014, Tresep has changed managers several times, although he kept the former Barça director as his deputy from the start. The data from the commercial register is sparse and hardly indicates that it reported a turnover of 132,000 euros in 2018.
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