FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta sharply escalated the long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid, accusing their president, Florentino Pérez, of a deep-seated “Barcelonitis” and claiming Real Madrid consistently benefits from refereeing favoritism.
Laporta’s remarks were a direct response to Pérez’s recent criticisms of refereeing and his invocation of the ‘Negreira case’ during Real Madrid’s general assembly last weekend.
“They show a deep ‘Barcelonitis.’ They have to talk about Barcelona to justify who knows what,” Laporta stated, as quoted by Spanish newspaper ‘As’. He added, “They are stretching the Negreira topic like chewing gum because they know there is nothing, but it’s their way of justifying something that isn’t true. Barcelona never bought a referee.”
The Barcelona chief went further, explicitly alleging that referees often favor Real Madrid, not his club.
“Barcelona is generally not favored by referees; what is certain is that they have always favored Real Madrid,” Laporta said. He cited two specific goals from a recent Real Madrid match that he believed were invalid.
“One was scored by Bellingham with his hand, and in the other, Vinícius broke Iñaki’s nose. Those two goals should not have been validated, and now Barcelona would be leading La Liga,” he argued.
Laporta suggested Real Madrid has a “persecution complex” against Barcelona’s historically successful period.
“They didn’t like Barcelona being the world reference from 2004 to 2015. We were hegemonic, and they want to seek justifications where there are none,” Laporta concluded, referring to Barcelona’s dominant era.
The controversy sparked by Pérez’s initial comments continues to fuel debate across Spain, with La Liga president Javier Tebas also having criticized them.