‘Real Madrid have Barcelona-itis’ – Barcelona President Joan Laporta responds to Florentino Perez | OneFootball

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has responded to Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez, after the latter criticised the Blaugrana for their payments to former Vice-President of the Referees Commitee (CTA) Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira. Perez accused referees of bias against Los Blancos, and remarked that Barcelona’s relationship with Negreira was ‘not normal’.

These comments came at Real Madrid’s General Assembly, where Perez whipped up Madridistas into a frenzy. After preaching peace the previous year, Perez took aim at Barcelona this time around, something that went down well in the Spanish capital.

Laporta: ‘Real Madrid have Barcelona-itis’

Following on from those comments, Barcelona and Laporta had not responded. Yet at a book launch in Andorra, Laporta did lunge into action.

“Now that I remember the statements made at the Real Madrid Assembly, which I haven’t had a chance to comment on until now that I’m in Andorra, I’ll address them. I think they’re over the line; they reveal Madrid’s Barcelona-itis. It seems they have to talk about Barca to justify who knows what,” Marca quote.

Image via Diario AS

“They’re present at every turn 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: Barca have never bribed a referee, and referees generally don’t favour Barca. They’ve always favoured Madrid. Just last matchday, they scored two goals where, in my opinion, it’s clear Bellingham handled the ball, and in the other, Vinicius broke Inaki’s nose. Those two goals shouldn’t have stood, and Barca would be leading the league now.”

‘Real Madrid have a persecution complex’ – Laporta

Laporta went on to claim that Barcelona were a source of paranoia for Los Blancos, which came from the Blaugrana success in the 21st century.

“They have a persecution complex against the best period in Barca’s history. They didn’t like that Barca was the world’s leading team from 2004 to 2015, when Barca were dominant, and they’re trying to find excuses that have no basis. We were the team that played the best football, recognised, admired, and esteemed for what we gave, recognised for what we did, and admired for how we did it. We won many titles, and Barca’s style of play was admired worldwide, so don’t make lame excuses; we would be league leaders.”

Laporta on Real Madrid’s battle with Javier Tebas

Another target of Real Madrid President Florentino Perez has been La Liga’s Javier Tebas. The two have been engaged in a war of words and legal proceedings for some time.

“If they’re entrenched in Barcelona-itis, I’m delighted, because those are usually times when Barca is successful and triumphant. After the statements made at the Assembly, attacking the president of LaLiga, it makes me think the worst.”

“I’ve had my ups and downs with Javier Tebas; he’s an honourable person who is very passionate about his position. We have a normal relationship, not a privileged one, which we don’t seek. We have a normal relationship, and Real Madrid has a confrontational relationship with La Liga and is obsessed with getting rid of him and will want to put someone else in his place… That strategy doesn’t inspire confidence in me. Tebas does everything he can for what’s best for LaLiga, so it makes me suspect that, driven by Real Madrid, they’re trying to remove him to put in… Who?”

Joan Laporta and Javier Teabas attends during the presentation of the mark of the new LaLiga EA Sports for the next season 2023/24 celebrated at Netflix studios on July 3, 2023, in Madrid, Spain.

Barcelona and Real Madrid’s split

This is yet further evidence of the dramatic split between the two referenced above. Since Laporta’s return to power, Real Madrid and Barcelona have been as peaceful and close as they have been for some time. However Barcelona distancing themselves from the Superleague project, and Real Madrid pursuing Barcelona actively in the Negreira case, have seen them return to their adversarial stance.