Former Barcelona president lashes out at Real Madrid – ‘Don’t you think that’s disgraceful?’ | OneFootball

The Negreira scandal has not painted a pretty picture of FC Barcelona in the global footballing community, and it is clear that the payments made directly to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees show them to be guilty.

For long, the Catalans have claimed that the payments were for refereeing reports. Judicial progress so far, however, guides good reason to doubt the legitimacy of that claim.

Real Madrid and Florentino Perez, for their part, have taken a strong position against the said corruption and have been spearheading the attacks on Barcelona. Needless to say, the entire saga has led to relations between the clubs reaching an all time low.

Barcelona president’s allegations

Speaking to El Partidazo de COPE in a recent interview, former Barcelona president and current presidential pre-candidate Joan Laporta delivered a scathing statement on Real Madrid with allegations of long-term favours from match officials.

“You don’t think it’s disgraceful that for 72 years the Technical Committee of Referees has been chaired by former members, former executives or former players of Real Madrid,” he began.

“Don’t you think that’s disgraceful? You think it’s the most normal thing in the world.”

Continuing, he added: “What are you saying? That what Barça does is undignified and what Madrid does with that is not undignified?”

Laporta fired shots at Real Madrid. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

He then explained the ‘Negreira scandal’ from his perspective and went on to point out how Barcelona had to pay for refereeing reports that Real Madrid never required or even had to request.

“What we did, was simply pay for scouting reports and referee advice, it wasn’t corruption.”

“Compare that to everything we had to go through with Real Madrid, ever since I was 5, Real Madrid always dominated in this,” Laporta added.

Speaking on how and why Los Blancos did not require the said reports from his perspective, the former Barcelona president said,

“Maybe they didn’t need to do the referee advice services we did with Negreira, because they had everything ready and done and free already.”

“So Barca had to pay to get what Madrid were getting for free? I’m saying Barca had to pay to get referee advice and scouting. While Madrid were in charge of everything. Seriously, do you not know who Madrid are?,” he concluded.