The former president of Real Madrid, Ramón Calderón, has come out in defense of FC Barcelona, ??involved in accusations of payments to the former vice president of referees, José María Enríquez Negreira. “Because of my condition as a lawyer, I do not like parallel trials. I suffered several and they are a mistake, when a matter is in the hands of the courts of justice and the competent federal bodies, opinions and speculations are out of place,” holds he.
During the Nacex tournament between former Barça and Real Madrid players at the Sant Esteve Sesrovires golf club, the former white president asked for prudence: “We don’t know what has happened, we have to wait. All that are opinions are frivolities that do not lead to anything other than further complicating the situation. Let’s wait and there will be time to comment.” Calderón did not want to comment on whether he believes that Barça paid the referees during the period under investigation: “I don’t know, what I have read is contradictory information. I have also heard Barcelona defend themselves and we do not know the truth. Those who know him are the ones who will have the evidence and testimonies on the table and there will be time.”
The man who was president of Real Madrid between 2006 and 2099 has also denied having felt harmed by the arbitrations in this period: “I had no feeling, what’s more, we won an incredible league in which we came back 9 points with a few games to go”, and adds that all the titles won by the Madrid entity were “thanks to the players and coaches”.
In front of the crowd of journalists that surrounded him, Ramón Calderón wanted to recall the disastrous consequences that rash information can cause: “The presumption of innocence is a basic principle. We have lived through so many cases with parallel trials and sentences on the news, and in the end it turned out that nothing happened. We do not remember that there has been a president (Sandro Rosell) two years in jail and it turned out that he was innocent. And during those two years I suppose he told himself everything about what he had done or not done. We have to wait”.
Finally, Calderón has also referred to the words of former referee Iturralde González, who in recent days had publicly stated that the current white president, Florentino Pérez, had locked him in a room after a game: “I don’t think so, it’s a business man, measured and prudent. He is proving to be capable of managing the club successfully, titles have been won, the stadium will be admired by the world of football… I don’t see Florentino Pérez or any president doing that. The ones I’ve met have never had any intention of putting pressure on a referee or influencing his decisions,” he asserts.
