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Real Madrid submit “substantial” dossier to Uefa over Barcelona corruption allegations

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Real Madrid say they have sent Uefa “evidence of extraordinary gravity” relating to payments made by Barcelona to a former vice-president of Spain’s referees’ committee.

European football’s governing body says it will assess the documents – linked to allegations of 8.4m euros (£7.2m) being paid by Barcelona to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018 – as part of their ongoing review of the case.

Barcelona have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing since the matter came to light in 2023, stressing that the money paid was for scouting and technical reports provided by Negreira and his Dasnil 95 company about officials.

However, Real say that their new dossier, which is reported to be more than 50,000 pages in length, details contains evidence “which directly affects the integrity of the competition and confidence in the refereeing system”.

Uefa described the dossier as “substantial” and said its ethics and disciplinary inspectors will “assess it as part of their ongoing review”.

It has been alleged previously that money paid to Negreira was being used to bribe referees, which Barcelona have strenuously denied.

In a statement on Thursday, Real said that they wanted the investigation to progress “as quickly as possible until its complete conclusion” and urged officials to “adopt the corresponding decisions in accordance with the seriousness of the proven facts”.

In a statement on Thursday, Barcelona responded by saying that Uefa had “not opened any new proceedings” against them.

They added: “Proceedings were initiated in 2023, with the appointment of two investigators who have since carried out the action they deemed appropriate.

“The club has always complied with all their requests. These proceedings have not been reopened because they have never been closed.

“It is up to the investigators to determine what action, if any, they consider appropriate regarding this documentation. As of today, they have not made any new requests to Barcelona nor have they forwarded Real Madrid’s complaint to the club. Should they do so, the club will respond accordingly.

“In accordance with the applicable legislation, this file is subject to the outcome of the criminal proceedings taking place in Spain and will remain therein.”

In June 2023, Uefa’s investigators decided Barcelona would not face any punishment and they have continued to appear in European competition since then.

A Barcelona court has been looking at the case since the same year and that investigation is still ongoing.

La Liga president Javier Tebas said in March 2023 that the competition body “could not take any action” because it happened too long ago. He said the case was “time-barred in sports law, but not in criminal law”.

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Flex your football brain with our daily quizzes

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Test your ball knowledge against today’s Who Am I?, Five in Five and Brainteaser.

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The Football Interview: Jack Wilshere on management, Mikel Arteta, Max Dowman & Luton Town

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By that time Mikel Arteta, who had been Wilshere’s Arsenal team-mate for five years, was first-team manager.

Arteta guided the Gunners to the Premier League title in 2025-26, their first time as English champions in 22 years, and Wilshere felt the Spaniard had played a vital role in developing him as a coach.

“I got to see Mikel and how he coached and the influence he was having,” said Wilshere. “I would ask him questions, why he’s doing certain things, and I started to fall in love with it and how he started to prepare training sessions.

“I’d get an opportunity to practice that with the 18s in the afternoon and it was something I wasn’t that good at, and I felt uncomfortable at times.

“I was influenced by Mikel, but then I had to learn how to teach. I had to learn how to get that across, how to plan a session and how to get the outcomes that you wanted.

“I played under some good coaches and was quite good at understanding what a coach wants, but I never dived into ‘why is he asking me to do that?’ Mikel really made that clear and I was lucky enough to have a relationship where I could say, ‘well, why do you want that?’ And he was open enough to share it with me.”

Not only did his former club Arsenal become English champions, but Wilshere gained extra satisfaction as he had coached defender Myles Lewis-Skelly, winger Ethan Nwaneri and midfielder Max Dowman during his time at the club’s academy.

Wilshere was only 16 when he made his Arsenal debut, and Dowman was 15 when he first played for the Gunners senior team, with Wilshere spotting his talent early on.

“Max played for my 18s team when he was 13,” added Wilshere. “I remember calling my dad because I played for the 18s when I was 14. I was like, ‘was 13 too young?’

“In the first game we could clearly see that he was ready for it. And I remember calling my dad and saying, ‘you need to come watch this kid’. My dad did, and my dad’s very biased, as you could imagine. But even he said, ‘he’s better than you’.”

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Arteta helped me understand the game – Wilshere

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Luton Town manager Jack Wilshere shares his love for coaching and explains how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta influnced his style.

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