Due to payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain's referees committee, Barcelona has been accused of corruption.
It was discovered last month that between 2001 and 2018, Barca reportedly paid Negreira and a business he owns a reported total of 8.4 million euros (£7.4 million). The indictment against Barca, former club officials, and Negreira for "corruption," "breach of trust," and "false business records" was made public in court in Barcelona on Friday. The club as well as former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell are the targets of these lawsuits, which were filed by the public prosecutor's office in Barcelona."FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees," said the public prosecutor's office.
La Liga chief executive Javier Tebas said last month that current president Joan Laporta should resign if he was unable to explain the payments.
Laporta responded by saying he will not give Tebas "what he'd like by stepping down" and the charges come three days after Laporta insisted his club had "never bought referees".
"Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never," he said on Tuesday.