FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez has addressed accusations of bribery reportedly leveled at his club and two former presidents ahead of a Friday meeting with Sevilla in La Liga.

As reported by El Debate, a judge overseeing the 'Caso Negreira' (the 'Negreira Case') has charged Barca with bribery alongside their former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell plus the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira and his son.

Barca paid €7.5 million ($7.9 million) to companies owned by Negreira from 2001 to 2018 and have insisted through current president Joan Laporta that the payments were made for consultation work.

Yet the judge overseeing the case, Judge Joaquin Aguirre, believes that bribery is a more fitting charge than that made in March (for "continued corruption between individuals in the sports field"), because Negreira "participated in the exercise of public functions" during the period of time that he received payments from Barca which ceased when he left his position.

Naturally Xavi was going to be probed on the reports when holding a pre-match press conference on Thursday and once more stated that he, a first team player from the late 1990s to 2015 at Camp Nou, has "never had the feeling that referees have benefited us." "Never," he doubled down.

"Next week there will be more news from [the Caso] Negreira and the next one ...," Xavi added, while also assuring the media that he hasn't stopped to reflect of why his club paid Negreira for 18 years.

"I don't make reflections of this kind. I have little time and I'm worried about the team," Xavi answered.

What worries the manager on the field is Barca's leaky defense and lack of concentration after conceding four goals in their last two outings.

"We have to be more focused," Xavi demanded. "When we analyse why we did not win in Mallorca, we talk about the five-man defense.

"We created six very clear scoring chances. The defense failed. It's not just the goalkeeper. It's pressure after losing the ball and other concepts. In attack we have improved, but we must recover the defensive level of last season," Xavi concluded on this.