As reported by ‘Agencia EFE’, Barcelona have received UEFA’s approval to participate in the Champions League next season. Despite everything going on with the ‘Negreira case’, the club will feature in Europe’s top competition in the 2023-24 season.
The report of the two inspectors appointed by UEFA to investigate “a possible violation of the legal framework” of the organisation by Barcelona for the ‘Negreira case’ has come out looking kindly on the Catalans, suggesting they should be allowed to feature in the Champions League 2023-24, as ‘EFE’ has learned from sources of the Spanish entity.
Mirjam Koller and Jean-Samuel Leuba, the two inspectors of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee in charge of the investigation, recommend in their report to the UEFA Appeals Committee that Barca be allowed to play in the top continental competition.
Now, the Appeals Committee has 10 days to make a decision, which the Catalan club is confident will be favourable to its interests, given the report of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee that it has in its possession.
The decision has been made by the highest authority of European football despite its knowledge of the ‘Negreira case’, in which payments of 7.3 million euros were made by Barcelona to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Royal Spanish Federation between 1994 and 2018, allegedly for refereeing and ‘scouting’ reports.
So the most logical and prudent thing to do, according to sources, would be to wait for a judge to rule before sanctioning Barcelona or definitively filing away the case opened against the Spanish club.
🚨 UEFA have communicated to Barcelona that they will be able to enter the 2023/24 Champions League.https://t.co/WNkHJKhz13
— MARCA in English (@MARCAinENGLISH) June 30, 2023