Barcelona’s Hacienda fine denounced: “No sanctions for any of the cited issues?”

In a perplexing turn of events, it has been reported by ‘El Confidencial’ that the Spanish tax office, Hacienda, has fined Barcelona a whopping 15.7 million euros for financial irregularities related to payments made to players. However, in a burstiness of denial, the Catalan club issued an official statement denying the allegations just a few hours later.

On a separate note, Barcelona has presented a financial practices plan to La Liga in hopes of bringing in reinforcements for the summer transfer window despite the precarious economic situation. The board’s final decision is yet to be made, adding to the general sense of unease in the Camp Nou.

As for the Hacienda investigation, unrelated to the ‘Negreira case,’ it seems to have stemmed from various financial irregularities involving the provision of Audi cars to the squad, undeclared costs of charter flights, and incorrect accounting for compensations paid to some former players, including Arda Turan and Alex Song. The investigation is said to date back to 2015 and began in 2019, further complicating matters for the club.

In addition to this, Barcelona finds itself fighting to prove their innocence in the ‘Negreira case’ after paying 1.4 million euros to DASNIL 95, a company owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. It seems that the club cannot avoid being stuck in sticky situation after sticky situation.

Yet, in a sudden burst of denial, Barcelona vehemently denied the allegations in an official statement, stating that “none of the issues cited were sanctioned by Hacienda.” The club also highlighted that the Central Economic Administrative Court had upheld the appeals filed by its lawyers, removing the sanctions regarding Personal Income Tax and Non-Residents Income Tax in April 2023. The club hopes that the court also reconsiders the sanctions regarding Value Added Tax by considering the tax treatment of payments made to players’ agents. Finally, Barcelona awaits the correction of the information published by ‘El Confidencial’ on Thursday.