Barcelona president Joan Laporta accused his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Pérez of having “Barcelona-itis,” a condition with symptoms which he defines as an “obsession” with the Catalan giants.
Given the passion of the accusations made by Laporta towards Real Madrid’s supposed influence over referees, it appears that the unhealthy focus flows both ways.
Pérez stoked the flames of this slanging match at Madrid’s general assembly last week when he once again referenced the ‘Negreira Case’—the ongoing formal investigation into the €8.4 million (£7.3 million, $9.7 million) worth of payments Barcelona allegedly made to former vice president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) refereeing committee José María Enríquez Negreira.
Laporta had to wait five days before he was given the chance to respond. He didn’t mince his words. “I think they’re out of line,” the president seethed, as quoted by , “they reveal Madrid’s obsession with Barcelona. It seems they have to talk about Barça to justify who knows what.
“They’re constantly present in the legal proceedings of the ‘Negreira Case,’ which they’re dragging out like chewing gum because they know there’s nothing to it, but it’s a way of justifying something that isn’t true: Barça has never bribed referees, and referees generally don’t favor Barça; they’ve always favored Madrid.”
Laporta insisted that this bias is as prominent as ever.
