League: Sanctions over reports not possible for Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Spanish league says Barcelona is not facing sanctions for having made payments for technical reports on referees to a company that belonged to the vice president of the refereeing committee. League president Javier Tebas says sports sanctions such as loss of points or relegation are not possible because there was a three-year statute of limitations for the alleged irregularities that occurred through 2018. Tebas says separate corruption charges would depend on the outcome of an investigation being conducted by prosecutors. The payments are under investigation as part of a tax probe into the company of the former member of the Spanish federation’s refereeing committee.