Barcelona President Joan Laporta gave a two-hour press conference on Monday to explain the club’s role in El Caso Negreira, but the talking point of the day ended up being which team was the ‘team of the regime’.
Laporta claimed that Los Blancos had been historically favoured by referees.
“For seven decades, most Presidents of the Referee have been former Madrid members, former players or former managers. Sometimes all of the above. For 70 years, those who have appointed the referees who are required deliver justice. For that this club to get involved in the case in the best period of our club is an unprecedented exercise in cynicism. Hopefully this trial will expose them, they can be unmasked and put in their place.”
Real Madrid responded with a video on their Twitter page which called Barcelona the ‘team of the regime’. Without delving into that conversation, Laporta was referring to a history of Real Madrid links to the position of the Head of the Refereeing Committee. La Vanguardia, via MD, have listed the 10 Referee Committee Presidents with links to Los Blancos.
- Alfonso Albeniz Jordana – played for Barcelona and Real Madrid, before becoming a member and director at the latter.
- Carlos Dieste Vega – player and director.
- Luis Colina Alvarez – President of the Stadium of Madrid, the B-team, member and director.
- Antonio de Carcer – member and director.
- Julian Ruete Minuesa – player, member and director.
- Eulogio Aranguren – player.
- Emilio Suarez Marcelo – member.
- Luis Saura del Pan – player and member
- Arturo Lopez Espinosa – came through academy to become a player.
- Jose Plaza – President of Referees Committee from 1967-1990, player in subsidiary team. Also declared Barcelona would never win the league while he was President of Referees Committee (they won La Liga twice in that period).
While many will see this as backing up Laporta’s argument, it is a double-edged sword. If links to Los Blancos are to be assumed as evidence of bias, something Laporta has warned against, then making payments to the Vice-President of the Referees Committee would very much fall under the same umbrella.
Equally it should be pointed out that up until Eulogio Aranguren in 1939, those referees would not have had links to the Francisco Franco regime, which had not come into being yet.
While Laporta’s statements are based on facts, neither do they themselves necessarily suggest any bias, as he has claimed about their relations with Enriquez Negreira.
