Barcelona have been charged with corruption after being alleged to have paid a referees organisation, which the club are claiming is “an external technical consultant”.

According to the prosecution, between 1994 and 2018, the Catalan club paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former referee and ex-vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football federation, a total of more than 7,3 million euros.

Three former club presidents, Josep Maria Bartomeu, Sandro Rosell, and Enriquez Negreira, are charged with the same crime by the Barcelona prosecutor’s office.

Enriquez Negreira was allegedly compensated for advising the club on referee-related matters.

“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,” explained the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office.

The investigation was initiated after Spain’s tax authorities discovered irregularities in tax payments made between 2016 and 2018 by Enriquez Negreira’s company, Dasnil 95.

Barcelona is reported to have paid Dasnil 95 between these years.

According to Cadena Ser radio, the final invoice was issued in June 2018. The CTA was then reorganized, and Enriquez Negreira left the organization.

This week, current Barça manager Joan Laporta stated emphatically that his club has never “bought referees.”

The Catalan side reportedly paid Enriquez Negreira’s firm 6.5 million euros ($6.9 million) between 2001 and 2018.

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

According to Barcelona, Dasnil 95 was compensated to provide the club with refereeing advice. However, prosecutors suspect that the money was used to bribe game officials.

The governing bodies of Spanish, European, and world football have a five-year statute of limitations, according to Liga president Javier Tebas. Therefore, Barcelona faces no immediate threat from a sporting perspective.

The defendant faces up to four years in prison if convicted of a felony.

Sanctions against the club could range from “suspension of activity” to “complete dissolution” as a company, according to Alberto Palomar, a law professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University.

The case has cast a shadow over Spain’s refereeing body, which last week demanded that the alleged actions of a single individual do not “taint” the “image” and “honour” of all referees.

“The problem concerns us because it harms Spanish football and sport,” Spanish Culture and Sports Minister Miquel Iceta said on Tuesday.