Real Madrid News
Real Madrid president silent on Barcelona’s Negreira controversy for two reasons – report
A decade ago, it was impossible to imagine Barcelona and Real Madrid supporting and covering each other’s backs for any reason. The historic rivalry between the clubs was seemingly inviolable as both clubs fought for the other’s downfall.
As football modernizes, however, it brings with it unthinkable changes. COPE (h/t Madrid Zone) brings to light one such recent instance of rare cooperation between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Catalans were recently discovered to have paid Enriquez Negreira’s firm Dansil 95 a whopping €6.7 million between 2001 and 2018 while he was Vice-President of the Technical Committee of Referees. The said amount was reportedly for scouting and advice on referees.
While clubs like Sevilla have openly requested an investigation and clarification regarding the matter, Real Madrid are one of the few teams to have maintained a low profile on their stance.
According to the Spanish outlet, Florentino Perez does not want to go against Barcelona and Joan Laporta publicly about the case because he believes that the relation between the clubs is key.
Furthermore, the clubs are taking the fight to La Liga president Javier Tebas. Due to these reasons, Perez is maintaining silence on the matter so that the relationship with Barça is not strained.
Atletico Madrid and several other La Liga clubs released an official statement where they said that they “reject and repudiate the facts known about the Negreira (Barcelona scandal) case.” Real Madrid is seemingly the only team to stay silent over the matter.
Earlier this week, Javier Tebas officially demanded an explanation from Barcelona president Joan Laporta over the situation.
“If Laporta can’t explain the Negreira Case to our satisfaction, he should resign,” he said.
Real Madrid’s silence on the matter shows the seriousness of the club towards the proposed Super League project. Needless to say, the new competition would be a massive boost to the club, both on sporting and economic terms.
In less than two weeks, Real Madrid will play hosts to Premier League giants Chelsea in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie at the Santiago Bernabeu.
It is a repeat of last season’s Champions League quarter-final, with the change being that the first leg was played at Stamford Bridge back then, which Real Madrid won triumphantly.
So, even though they lost the second leg 3-2, Los Merengues progressed on aggregate. At one point in the second leg, Real Madrid were 3-0 down and looked to be crashing out of the tournament.
But, that is not how the match played out as Luka Modric produced a moment of magic, sending in a stunning outside-of-the-boot pass for Rodrygo to guide home. That forced the match into extra time and Karim Benzema then scored to seal an aggregate win for his team.
Mateo Kovacic, a former Real Madrid midfielder, was on the losing side with Chelsea on that fateful night. And the Croatian has now spoken to Sportske Novosti, about that moment of magic from Modric last year as well as the prospect of facing Real Madrid again.
“We were good against Real Madrid last year, especially in Madrid. Then Modrić invented that trivela assist for Rodrygo… We have to be at 120% against them. They immediately punish every minor mistake. Although I repeat, we are also a difficult opponent for them, we showed it,“ Kovacic said.
On the prospect of facing his close friend and national teammate Modric, Kovacic added: “[laughs] how the draw arranges it… It won’t be easy for us because Real Madrid is always the most dangerous team in the Champions League.”
“It’s a strange feeling to have Modric as a rival. There were hard fouls last year because neither he nor I pull back. We will fight for sure. I play on the left, he’s on the right, we will see who wants what. But I wouldn’t like to hurt him,” he added.
Chelsea had met Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League during the 2020/21 campaign as well and had managed to eliminate them at the semi-final stages on their way to winning the title.
While the Blues have not been in the best of form this season, they have the star power and quality in their ranks to hurt Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti’s men must be at their best to get through to the next round.
