Real Madrid will take legal action against former police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo, after claims that Los Blancos bribed referees.
Villarejo, who is to stand trial on a number of charges, is currently out on bail after spending four years in custody between 2017 and 2021, has made a number of claims about powerful figures in recent years. Some of those have turned out to be backed up, others have been unfounded.
Recently he alleged that Barcelona President Joan Laporta had provided police with the information to arrest and imprison former presidential rival Sandro Rosell, which Laporta has denied.
He has also asserted on multiple occasions that Real Madrid bribed referees before Barcelona, when referring to the Negreira Case. Real Madrid have emitted a statement saying that Florentino Perez has ordered the club to take legal action against the ‘false accusations’ made by Villarejo.
He had told RAC1 that ‘Before Barcelona did it, Real Madrid did so,” but also noted that “Nothing will happen to Florentino, because he is untouchable. It’s impossible to take anything that affects Florentino to court, claiming that it would be suicidal for anyone to try to do so.”
Previously Villarejo has alleged that the Negreira case, which sees Barcelona under investigation for bribery and sporting corruption, was not caried through to the courts because of the involvement of Real Madrid.
At the time of writing, Villarejo is yet to come up with any evidence of the matter. As such, the allegations should probably be treated with caution. Villarejo seemed unconcerned by the threat of legal action, saying ‘another sentence for me’.