FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta Attacks Real Madrid For Referee Favoritism In Sensational Speech

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has taken a dig at Real Madrid, claiming that his club’s bitter rivals have “historically” been “very favored” by officiating decisions in the past.

Barca have been charged for “continued corruption” by the Prosecutor’s Office and are being investigated for payments of €7.5 million ($8.25 million) made between 2001 and 2018 to the Former Vice President of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Laporta will hold a press conference on Monday morning to explain and field questions on ‘Caso Negreira’ (the ‘Negieira Case’), as it has been dubbed in Spain.

Before that, however, in the hours leading up to Barca’s La Liga match with Getafe on Sunday, he made a speech at a supporter’s club in Madrid where he stated that the Blaugrana’s enemies “have nothing” against them “because there is nothing” to prove.

“What they have done here is magnify a situation that one of the people who was linked to these companies was a former referee and a former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees. [Negreira] did not have any capacity to alter the results of any match because he did not designate the referees,” Laporta claimed.

Laporta then took a swipe at Real Madrid for joining the case as a private accuser by saying that Los Blancos are “a club that has historically been very favoured in terms of refereeing”.

“I think it’s nonsense. We love Barca and we are not going to allow our beloved Barca’s sentiments to be dirtied,” he insisted.

Laporta will appear before the media on Monday amid La Liga president Javier Tebas suggesting that Laporta must step down if he can’t explain the payments made to Negreira “well”.

After a La Vanguardia report accused Tebas of providing false evidence in ‘Caso Negreira’, however, which Tebas denied, Barca released an official statement demanding that the Spanish top flight leader should also hand in his resignation.

Elsewhere, UEFA
EFA
confirmed last month that they have launched their own investigation into the payments scandal which could result in possible sanctions including a ban from its premier continental club competition, the Champions League, according to AS.