Spanish giants Real Madrid have finally broken their silence regarding the huge scandal involving their rivals Barcelona.
The reigning La Liga champions have announced that they will hold an urgent board meeting to plan their response to the corruption charges levelled against the Catalan club.
The Bernabeu outfit said: “Given the seriousness of the accusations made by the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office against the FC Barcelona and two of its presidents due to well-founded suspicions of corruption and their relations with the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Arbitrators, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the president has urgently summoned the Board of Directors tomorrow, Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 12pm, in order to decided on the actions that Real Madrid deems appropriate.”
Official Announcement. #RealMadrid
— Real Madrid C.F. ???????????????? (@realmadriden) March 11, 2023
On Friday, a court in Barcelona revealed that the 26-time La Liga champions has been indicted over charges of “corruption”, “breach of trust” and “false business records”, after they were alleged to have made payments of more than €8 million between 2001 and 2018 to companies owned by former vice-president of Spain’s referee committee, Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who held the role at the Spanish football association between 1993 and 2018.
The public prosecutor’s office released a statement and it read: “FC Barcelona obtained and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA) and in exchange for money, the latter carries out actions tending to benefit FC Barcelona in decisions by the referees,” said the public prosecutor’s office.
Albeit the charges, Barcelona and Negreira denied any knowledge of such corruption or bribery with each party releasing a statement of theirs.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta refuted the claims earlier this week. He said: “Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never.”
Negreira, on the other hand, said that he was being paid in an advisory role to explain to players how best to handle different referees.
However, reports revealed there could be serious punishments for the Spanish top-flight leaders, with potential relegation as one of many repercussions.
