The investigation into payments made by Barcelona to companies with ties to ex-Spanish refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira is nearing its third year, leaving Real Madrid frustrated
Xabi Alonso has echoed Real Madrid president Florentino Perez’s call for ‘justice’ in a major corruption scandal which involves their bitter rivals, Barcelona. ‘The Negreira case’ has gripped Spanish football for more than two-and-a-half years, with the criminal investigation still ongoing.
Barcelona have previously admitted to making payments worth €8.4million (£7.3m) to companies with links to former Spanish refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira between 2001 and 2018. But Barca president Joan Laporta has repeated that they were made in exchange for scouting reports on La Liga referees.
Negreira, meanwhile, denies being bribed to influence refereeing decisions. However, those claims haven’t satisfied Real, with Perez calling it ‘the biggest scandal in the history of football’ during the club’s Christmas reception for the media this week.
“It is completely incomprehensible that the institutions have left Madrid alone in this fight,” Perez argued. “How is it possible that the president of the referees asks us to forget about it?
“How are we going to forget the biggest scandal in the history of football? How can the RFEF (Spanish football federation) and La Liga behave like this? They have the duty to ensure integrity.”
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Perez added: “It is possible that some club has been relegated as a victim of the ‘Negreira case.’ Our football has been damaged and justice must be done.”
Alonso, speaking ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Talavera de la Reina in the Copa del Rey, backed Perez by affirming: “We share the position of the club and the president. The most important thing is that for the good of football, we need to find out the truth of what happened.”
The Real manager went on to say: “We’re all human and make mistakes. But here, there was a case that needs to be investigate.
“Abroad, what happened here really surprises people, that there’ve been no consequences, or responsibility [taken]. That’s why it’s very important to find out what happened. It isn’t normal, and it can’t be taken as normal.”
Later on Tuesday, ahead of Barca’s cup tie away to Guadalajara, Laporta was asked to respond to Perez’s comments. “The acute Barcelonitis in Madrid suits us because they’re not worrying about what they should be worrying about,” Laporta replied.
“If the discourse has changed, it’s because there used to be similarities in projects. They’re still dragging out the Negreira issue with something that isn’t working out for them.”
Both teams will be in Copa del Rey action before playing their final league fixtures of 2025 this weekend. Hansi Flick’s Barcelona are currently four points ahead of Real at the top of La Liga, despite having been five points behind Alonso’s side after they lost El Clasico at the end of October.
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