Although they lost 5-3 to Arsenal in the first of their pre-season friendlies, Barcelona did have some good news to celebrate on Thursday.
There was a chance that the blaugranes wouldn’t be permitted to enter next season’s Champions League after the issues with what became known as the ‘Casa Negreira.’
As Football Espana note, that was related to payments made to former Spanish football referee, Enriquez Negreira’s firm Dansil 95, totalling €6.7m between 2001 and 2018 while he was Vice-President of the Technical Committee of Referees, and for scouting reports and advice on referees.
Though ESPN have reported that UEFA will reopen the case against Barca if any more evidence is uncovered concerning potential corruption, for now, there is no case to answer and, as a result, Xavi will be managing his side in European football’s premier competition once more.
All those connected with the club will surely be hoping that the club can do better in the competition than they have of late.
Last season Barca didn’t even manage to get out of the group stages, dropping down into the Europa League as a result.
Getting back in amongst the big boys in Europe is key for the club to regain some of their identity, and as long as there aren’t any more skeletons in the closet, Barca can begin to move forward again.