"They are trying to discredit Barça, but I don't think they are doing it innocently. They want to harm football." Joan Laporta didn't say that quietly. He meant every word.
Barcelona's president used Saturday's press conference to go well beyond defending the club against the Negreira corruption allegations — he turned it into a verdict on Real Madrid's character, credibility, and trajectory. With UEFA now reviewing a fresh batch of documents submitted by Los Blancos related to the ongoing investigation, Laporta decided offence was the better defence.
The core of the case: Barcelona allegedly paid over €7 million to a company owned by José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of Spain's refereeing committee, between 2001 and 2018. The implication being those payments were made to secure favourable refereeing decisions. Barça deny it, have filed a lawsuit against Florentino Pérez, and insist an acquittal is coming. Pérez, for his part, pledged to submit evidence to UEFA after winning re-election as Real Madrid president this summer — and he followed through during the international break.
Laporta's Wider Argument: Madrid Are Losing the Room
The legal rebuttal was the warm-up act. Laporta's sharper point was about Real Madrid's standing in European football — and he went after it directly.
"You go to every institution, you go to UEFA, to the Euro League and they are against everything and everyone," he said. "This says a lot about the attitude of a team that is losing prestige, recognition and credibility on a national and international level."
He backed it with something concrete: at a recent general assembly of the European Football Clubs, Real Madrid had no representation. Whether that absence was strategic or logistical, it handed Laporta a clean line — and he used it.
There's obvious self-interest in Laporta's framing. But he's not entirely wrong that Madrid's institutional relationships have grown increasingly adversarial, from the Super League fallout to ongoing friction with UEFA. The 15-time European champions carrying that kind of reputational weight matters, even if the football has mostly papered over it.
On the Pitch, Barcelona Have the Upper Hand — and They Know It
Context makes Laporta's confidence easier to understand. Under Hansi Flick, Barcelona have won back-to-back La Liga titles plus three additional domestic trophies. Real Madrid have won zero in that same window. Barça have taken six Clásicos to Madrid's one, including three finals. Nine games into the new season, they're perfect in all competitions and already six points clear of an unconvincing Madrid side.
"Barça is going through a sweet moment," Laporta said. "We have nine players that were in the squad of the World Cup champion, we have a team that makes people fall in love with their football. From Madrid they are trying to minimize all of this."
His read — that Madrid keeping the Negreira flame burning is partly a distraction from what's happening on the pitch — isn't unreasonable. When the scoreboard isn't going your way, the legal brief becomes the alternative front.
The first Clásico of the season is less than a month away. Barça are priced accordingly as favourites, and given the recent head-to-head record, it's hard to argue with that. UEFA's verdict on Negreira has no fixed timeline. But the fixture list doesn't wait.
