After the "Negrera" crisis afflicting Barcelona, it was the turn of Real Madrid, the other pole of the Spanish League, to enter into an open war with one of the former referees in La Liga, who accused President Florentino Perez of shocking accusations.
Former Spanish referee Iturralde Gonzalez said that Perez asked to meet him in a separate room inside the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium to pressure his decisions, but he refused the matter, and demanded the presence of his assistant in the meeting with the royal president.
Gonzalez said in an interview with "Cadena Ser" that after the match he managed between Real Madrid and Deportivo de La Coruña (6-1) in the 2010-2011 season, Perez asked Gonzalez for one thing, which is to treat him like Barcelona.
Hay que difundir este video que ha hecho el Real Madrid TV sobre Iturralde González, uno de los árbitros que most ha perjudicado al Real Madrid.pic.twitter.com/vlMO0ul0kL
- REAL MADRID❤️ (@AdriRM33) March 12, 2023
The referee asked Perez if this was a joke, so that the answer of the Real Madrid president would be “No.” After half an hour, the referee told the Technical Committee for Arbitration in the Spanish Federation, which did not move or impose any penalties, according to Gonzalez.
The response came quickly from Real Madrid by showing a video on the club's official channel, during which it reviewed what Real Madrid considered "the mistakes that the referee committed against Real Madrid during his career."
I attached the video with a comment, "This is Iturralde Gonzalez, the referee who finally took off his mask and is now dedicated to attacking Real Madrid in the media."
Barcelona and Negrera
The Spanish judiciary had accused FC Barcelona, its two former presidents, and the former arbitration official, Jose Maria Enriques Negrera, of "corruption", "abuse of trust" and "falsifying commercial records" in the case of suspicious financial payments from the Catalan club to Negrera, according to what a Barcelona court announced last Friday. .
The prosecutions of the Public Prosecutor in Barcelona target the club in its moral capacity, in addition to its former presidents, Josep Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell.
Accusations were also brought against Oscar Grau and Albert Soler, two former members of Bartomeu's team.
🎥 @JoanLaportaFCB getting emotional today while talking about the Negreira case.
@tv3cat #FCB 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/JJywLWpcx7
— Reshad Rahman (@ReshadRahman_) March 13, 2023
The case relates to alleged payments made by Barcelona to Negrera, former vice-president of the technical arbitration committee, to provide the club with advice and oral advice on topics related to referees.
"FC Barcelona has obtained and maintained a highly confidential verbal agreement with Negrera whereby he - in his capacity as Vice-President of the Technical Arbitration Committee - performs, in exchange for money, actions that give preference to FC Barcelona with the decisions of the referees in the matches played by the club and, accordingly, in the results and competitions," AFP quoted the prosecution as saying.
The prosecution indicated that the Catalan club paid a total of more than 7 million euros to Negrera between 1994 and 2018.
The accusations come just days after Barcelona's current president, Joan Laporta, confirmed that his club had "never bought referees."
"Let's make it clear that Barcelona never bought referees, and the Catalan club never had any intention of buying referees at all," Laporta said today, Tuesday.
Last month, Laporta launched a violent attack on the president of the Spanish Football League, Javier Tebas, accusing him of "fabricating a campaign against Barcelona."
Tebas had considered that Laporta should resign, "if he did not explain well or in a more logical way why the club paid this money to Enriques Negrera."