Former referee Xavier Estrada Fernández has publicly aligned himself with Real Madrid in the controversy surrounding the Negreira case. After the recent court appearances of Joan Laporta, Luis Enrique, and Ernesto Valverde, as well as the statement issued by the Spanish Association of Football Referees (AESAF) criticizing Real Madrid for questioning the integrity of Spanish refereeing, Estrada Fernández has doubled down on his position. The former Catalan official, one of the first figures to denounce the Negreira family, believes the club’s stance is fully justified.

According to Estrada Fernández, “any La Liga club” would have been obliged to report the payments made to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). He also highlighted the contradictions surrounding the so-called referee reports, recalling that two Barcelona coaches from the period in question openly admitted they never reviewed them. “It’s striking that so much importance is placed on reports that the coaches themselves neither used nor considered relevant,” he argued.

Currently serving as a city councilor in Lleida for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Estrada Fernández filed a formal complaint against José María Enríquez Negreira and his son Javier Enríquez once the case became public. He explained his decision bluntly: “I couldn’t understand how a vice-president of the refereeing committee could be receiving money from a club. It went completely against the values a referee should represent.” In his view, the mere existence of these payments should have resulted in immediate sanctions against FC Barcelona.

The former referee also underlined the severe reputational damage caused by the case, describing it as “irreparable harm to football, and especially to refereeing.” He stressed that the refereeing profession, already under constant scrutiny from fans, is now “more damaged than ever.” Estrada Fernández also echoed Florentino Pérez’s criticism of Spanish officiating, stating that all La Liga clubs should have taken a similar stand. “Every day that passes without a resolution further damages the credibility of the competition,” he said in an interview with Radio Marca.

Estrada Fernández was particularly critical of the lack of institutional backing he received after filing his complaint. “At no point did I receive a call from either the RFEF or the CTA presidents to support one of their referees in a case of alleged sports corruption,” he stated, adding that both organizations distanced themselves from him entirely. He described the refereeing structure as lacking transparency and suffering from “excessive cronyism,” labeling it “outdated.”

Nearly three years after the case came to light, Estrada Fernández considers it “very serious” that there is still no resolution. While acknowledging the slow pace of judicial proceedings, he remains firm in his belief that the facts are clear. “I don’t have a crystal ball,” he concluded, “but this is a matter of justice, and the evidence is more than sufficient.”

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