Real Madrid finally decided yesterday to take action in the Negreira case. The club’s board of directors, meeting urgently on Sunday morning, agreed, as expected, that it will take part in the case as soon as the complaint from the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office is accepted. Until Saturday’s announcement of the appointment of the board, the white club was the only one of all the Spanish League that had made the agreement and, together with Barcelona, ??the only one that had not signed a statement from the employers’ association chaired by Javier Tebas demanding to get to the bottom of the matter and clear responsibilities. Shortly after Real Madrid’s position became known, Barcelona reaffirmed its innocence through a tweet from its president, Joan Laporta.
In a statement posted on its website at 1:30 p.m., the white club assured: “The board of directors of Real Madrid, in its meeting held today, has taken note of the serious accusations made by the Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona against FC Barcelona, ??two of its presidents – Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell – and former directors Albert Soler and Òscar Grau (actually ex-executives), on the basis of potential crimes, among others, of corruption in the field sport, within the framework of the relations established by the aforementioned club with whom José María Enríquez Negreira was vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees”.
And the text continued: “Real Madrid expresses its deep concern about the gravity of the events and reiterates its full confidence in the action of justice, and has agreed that, in defense of its legitimate interests, it will appear in the proceedings so the judge opens it to the injured parties”.
A little more than an hour after Madrid issued its statement, the first reaction from the Barcelona fans came from its president, Joan Laporta, who used his Twitter account to make an outrageous defense of the club that directs “Culers, be calm. Barça is innocent of what it is accused of and is the victim of a campaign against its honor in which we are all now involved. no surprise We will defend Barça and demonstrate the innocence of the club”, wrote Laporta through the networks.
In the same vein as a few days ago, the Barça president insists that an orchestrated campaign is being woven to cast doubt on Barça’s achievements over the past 20 years. On Friday, the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office detailed its complaint against Barça, the club’s former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, as well as the former vice-president of referees Enríquez Negreira and former Barcelona executives Albert Soler and Òscar Grau. The Prosecutor’s Office denounces the alleged crimes of corruption between individuals in the sports field, disloyal administration and document falsification.
Madrid has only had to follow in the footsteps of LaLiga, presided over by Javier Tebas, and the Spanish Federation, directed by Luis Rubiales.
The two bodies also announced that they would act as private prosecutors. From Barça they announce an upcoming press conference to address the case and give the relevant explanations, but this event remains without a date. Yesterday an official tweet was all answer.
At the Barcelona club, Saturday’s white maneuver was met with some surprise. It was not expected that Madrid, which had kept silent, unlike the other teams, and which is Barcelona’s great ally for the European Super League, would express itself in this way.
Sources from the white club assure that Madrid had no intention of positioning themselves against Barcelona alongside the rest of the clubs in the League, but that it has been impossible for Florentino Pérez to continue to remain aloof in this battle with all the ‘Santiago Bernabéu stadium chanting “Corruption in the Federation” and “Barcelona always robbing” in each of the matches played in the white coliseum.
Real Madrid has for many years, since the victory of Ángel Villar over Gerardo González in the elections for the presidency of the Spanish Federation in November 2004, denounced through its official media an alleged arbitration favor deal towards Barcelona as Villar’s payment to the Barcelona club for having voted him against the decision of the other clubs.