FC Barcelona has been accused of paying millions of euros to benefit from biased referees and was raided by a court on Thursday as part of an investigation where the club is suspected of “bribery”.

Searches in the Arbitration Commission in Spain in the case of Barcelona

On Thursday, the Commission of Arbitrators in Spain was searched as part of the investigation, Agerpres reports.

“Today, the Investigative Court No. 1 in Barcelona ordered a search of the headquarters of the Technical Commission of Referees” in the context of the investigation into suspicious payments made by the Catalan club to José María Enriquez Negreira, the former head of Spanish arbitration. This is stated in the statement of the High Court of Catalonia.

The Civil Guard, which is in charge of the search at the headquarters of the Spanish Federation (RFEF) in Las Rosas, near Madrid, confirmed to AFP that its action was continuing but that no arrests were expected.

The Barcelona club, its former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosel, as well as Negreira and his son, have been defendants in the case since March.

In March, Spanish prosecutors filed a complaint regarding alleged payments made by FC Barcelona between 2001 and 2018, totaling 7.3 million euros, to companies owned by the former Vice President of the Technical Commission of Referees of Spain (1993-2018), José María Enriquez. Negreira

FC Barcelona denied any wrongdoing in February, saying the money was paid for an external consultant who provided “technical reports related to arbitration”, a fairly common practice among professional clubs.

Negreira was responsible for rating the referees, but no evidence was found that he paid them to influence the outcome of matches.