European football’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday it was launching an investigation into claims Barcelona paid for favourable refereeing decisions.

UEFA said its ethics and disciplinary inspectors would probe “a potential violation of UEFA’s legal framework by FC Barcelona in connection with the so-called ‘Caso Negreira'”, referring to the Spanish league’s former refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Barcelona have already been charged with corruption by Spanish prosecutors for payments between 2001 and 2018 to a company owned by Negreira, totalling around 7.3 million euros ($7.95 million).

The club say they were paying for reports and advice on refereeing but prosecutors have accused the club of seeking to gain favourable decision-making from officials.

Charges were filed earlier this month against the club, Negreira and two former Barcelona presidents, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, among others.

Negreira, a former referee, was the vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football federation between 1994 and 2018.

The investigation began after Spain’s tax authorities identified irregularities in tax payments made between 2016 and 2018 by the company Dasnil 95, owned by Negreira.

Dasnil 95 reportedly received payments from Barcelona between those years.

The last invoice was issued in June 2018. After that the refereeing committee was restructured and Negreira left the organisation.

Joan Laporta, the current Barcelona president, has insisted his club is innocent.

“Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never,” he said.

La Liga president Javier Tebas has previously said Barcelona faced no immediate danger because the governing bodies of Spanish, European and world football all have five-year statutes of limitations.

On the criminal level, the accused could face up to four years in prison.

The case has caused tensions between Barcelona and old rivals Real Madrid, with the latter’s president, Florentino Perez, not travelling to the Camp Nou for last weekend’s Clasico, which was won by the Catalans.

Real Madrid have confirmed they will appear in the case as an “injured party” to defend their interests.

Relations between the two rival clubs seemed to be improving of late, as they looked to launch a European Super League project together in 2021 and remain set on the idea.

Source: AFP

Kylian Mbappe has succeeded the retired Hugo Lloris as France captain, a source close to the team told AFP on Monday.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Mbappe, 24, accepted the proposal after discussions with Coach Didier Deschamps earlier in the day.

Tottenham goalkeeper Lloris brought an end to his international career in January after losing the World Cup final a month earlier.

Lloris, 36, had been skipper for more than a decade.

Atletico Madrid attacker Antoine Griezmann was named vice-captain after Manchester United centre-back Raphael Varane also hung up his boots following the defeat to Argentina in December.

Mbappe, who has played 66 times for his country, had been heavily linked with the role for weeks and scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final loss after helping Les Bleus to the title in 2018.

The former Monaco attacker is vice-captain at PSG behind Brazil’s Marquinhos and led the side in the defender’s absence during Sunday’s loss to Rennes.

His first game as captain will be Friday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against the Netherlands at the Stade de France.

Source: AFP

Ireland’s U17 side are off to the European Championship finals after a dramatic finish to their qualifying campaign today, a superb 3-2 win over Cyprus sealed with a stoppage time goal from Bohemians prospect Nickson Okosun.

Having played out a 2-2 draw with Italy and earned a 3-0 win over Ukraine in the first two games of the Elite round of qualification, Colin O’Brien’s side went into the final game, against qualifying tournament hosts Cyprus, aware that a win would seal qualification while they could still make the finals in the event of a draw.

Ireland trailed 1-0 at half time, drew level on 62 minutes through Luke Kehir but fell behind again.

Shamrock Rovers man Naj Razi scored on 82 minutes to make it 2-2.

Okosun came on for Kehit in added time and scored in the 96th minute to give Ireland that 3-2 and a place in the finals, which will be held in Hungary from May 17th to June 2nd.

Source: Independent.ie

The BBC’s flagship football highlights show Match of the Day was cut short on Saturday as pundits and commentators pulled out after presenter Gary Lineker was taken off air by the corporation.

Lineker was told to “step back” from the role he has held since 1999 on Friday after an impartiality row broke out over the former England striker’s comparison of the UK government’s rhetoric in tackling illegal immigration to Nazi-era Germany.

But the decision sparked a major backlash from BBC pundits and commentators, decimating the publicly-funded broadcaster’s sports schedule.

First broadcast in 1964, Match of the Day is the world’s longest-running football television programme and has grown into a cultural phenomenon in Britain.

For the first time it was broadcast without a presenter, pundits or even commentary with only crowd noise accompanying a 20-minute highlights package of six Premier League games, an hour less than scheduled.

The programme’s famous theme tune was even dropped for an introduction apologising to viewers for the curtailed show.

Source: AFP

UEFA said Tuesday it will reimburse all Liverpool supporters who attended last year’s chaos-hit Champions League final between the English club and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Paris.

Heavily criticised in an independent report published last month for organisational failures which “almost led to disaster”, European football’s governing body said its refund scheme would cover the entire Liverpool allocation of nearly 20,000, as well as supporters of Real and other spectators affected by the trouble outside the stadium.

“Refunds will be available to all fans… where the most difficult circumstances were reported,” UEFA said, adding that all ticket-holders who did not enter the stadium by the originally scheduled kick-off time, or could not get in at all, would also receive a refund.

“Given these criteria, the special refund scheme covers all of the Liverpool FC ticket allocation for the final, i.e. 19,618 tickets.”

Real’s 1-0 win at France’s national stadium on May 28 was overshadowed by events outside, with the kick-off delayed by 37 minutes as fans struggled to access the stadium after police funnelled them into overcrowded bottlenecks as they approached.

Police then fired tear gas towards thousands of supporters locked behind metal fences on the perimeter to the stadium.

UEFA tried to pin the blame on Liverpool fans arriving late despite thousands having been held for hours outside the stadium before kick-off.

A leading Liverpool fans’ group, Spirit of Shankly, later said fans were left “fearing for their life” in a “maelstrom of chaos and alarm”.

The Spirit of Shankly and the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association hailed the decision but underscored that it did not go far enough.

A joint statement said the announcement “does not excuse UEFA, exempt them from criticism or lessen the need for them to implement all of the recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry”.

The French authorities claimed an “industrial scale fraud” of fake tickets was the problem.

A French Senate enquiry in July found that poorly-executed security arrangements were the cause of the mayhem.

The independent report said that “UEFA, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster”.

“We have taken into account a huge number of views expressed both publicly and privately and we believe we have devised a scheme that is comprehensive and fair,” said UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis.

“We recognise the negative experiences of those supporters on the day and with this scheme we will refund fans who had bought tickets and who were the most affected by the difficulties in accessing the stadium.”

In a brief statement, the English club said: “This is a UEFA refund policy, not a Liverpool FC policy.

“The club’s role, as a ticket agent for this match, will be to administer the refunds to qualifying supporters that bought match tickets via LFC, as directed by UEFA.”

Images of the final tarnished France’s reputation for holding major sports events ahead of the Rugby World Cup this year and the 2024 Olympic Games, both of which will host events at the Stade de France.

This year’s Champions League final is due to be played in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 10.

Source: AFP