The Spanish Association of Football Referees (AESAF), considered the union of Spanish referees, has issued a statement in which the president of Madrid expresses himself harshly regarding the latest statements. In them, the top leader of the white team attacked the referees for their supposed bad performances against his team, at the same time that he assured that the Negreira Case “is the biggest scandal in the history of football in the world.”
“The Spanish arbitration group acts with independence, rigor and professionalism, and is not part of any plot or collusion with the interests of clubs or leaders,” the AESAF stated in its statement. “In the so-called , no referee has been investigated or charged during the entire investigation period. We cannot accept as valid the accusation of corruption regarding the figure of the referees,” adds the union.
At the same time, the representative of the Spanish referees reminds that refereeing cannot be considered an excuse: “We understand that refereeing cannot be used as an excuse to justify sporting results. Football is won and lost on the field of play.” At the same time, the union defended , a referee named by name and surname by Florentino Pérez as responsible for an arbitration conspiracy against Madrid. “AESAF expresses its support for colleague Pablo González Fuertes and all the referees in Spain, whose professional and personal work deserves institutional and social respect. We reject any attempt to personalize attacks or publicly delegitimize referees without foundations,” it adds.
“We want to state that the accusation of threats in the press conference for the 2024-25 season does not correspond to reality, and is, at the very least, a falsehood,” it is clarified, to warn that statements such as those made by the president of Madrid can be very damaging to the culture of football. “AESAF warns that any public demonstration carried out from positions of influence has a direct impact on the culture of football and refereeing, and leads – directly or indirectly – to episodes of violence and aggression against referees at all levels,” it is clarified.
At midday, the president of FC Barcelona also spoke, who testified as a witness in the trial of the Negreira case a few days ago. The Barça president has responded to Florentino Pérez’s statements: “Before it was Barcelonaitis, but now it is acute Barcelonaitis. I see that Barcelonaitis is installed in the heart of Real Madrid fans,” he ironically stated, before the lunch for representatives of the FC Barcelona and Guadalajara boards prior to tonight’s Cup match at 9:00 p.m. “All of that is already going well for us,” he added. “It means that they are more worried about us than what they really have to worry about,” Laporta insisted.
The Barça president considers that if Florentino Pérez has changed his strategy and discourse in his relations with Barcelona, ”possibly it is because a year ago there were certain coincidences in some projects and now, seeing that this project has not come to fruition, it has not come to fruition”, in reference to the Suprerliga. “We have a clear position to reach an agreement with UEFA and I think it is the best for our club,” concluded Laporta.
