Legal proceedings

“Very dirty”: Barca boss lashes out at Real

After Real Madrid publicly accused FC Barcelona of bribing referees on their TV channel "Real Madrid TV", the proceedings against the Catalans and club president Joan Laporta in particular were dropped. In an interview with "Barca One", the 61-year-old has now settled accounts with his arch-rivals.

The "royals" had acted "very dirty", said Laporta. "It is Real Madrid who have been favored the most by the referees. Nobody can prove that we bought games or referees, because we didn't do that."

Referees bribed?
Background: The Spanish champions had claimed that Barca had transferred around €7.3 million to a company owned by Enriquez Negreira, the then vice-president of the Spanish refereeing committee CTA, between 2001 and 2018. The proceedings against Laporta were dropped a few days ago due to the statute of limitations. 

The Catalans' boss was also unable to resist a side-swipe at Real's transfer coup involving Kylian Mbappe. "We want Barca to win the Champions League and win every game. As far as the signing of Mbappe is concerned, I have more faith in Barca's philosophy, which is to produce talent from La Masia (Barcelona's academy, ed.)," explained Laporta.