Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid boss, has slammed FC Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta for accusing his side of benefiting from biased refereeing and taking VAR “hostage”. He said that everyone knows the real problem of Spanish football is the ‘Caso Negreira’ scandal, where Barca allegedly paid millions to a former referee official.
Laporta had ranted against VAR after Real Madrid’s controversial 3-2 victory over Almeria at the Bernabeu last Sunday, claiming that the video assistant referee was not helping the referees, but rather being influenced by the constant pressure from their rivals.
He said that this pressure had been going on for a long time and was yielding results, as all the decisions were in favor of Real Madrid.
Ancelotti, however, dismissed these allegations at his press conference on Friday, before facing Las Palmas. He said that he did not like to get into these controversies, but that the truth was that they had talked a lot this week.
He reiterated his previous statement, that they should not divert the attention from the real issue. He said that everyone knows what happened in Spanish football, referring to the ‘Caso Negreira’ scandal, where Barca is accused of paying more than $8 million to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, but denies any wrongdoing.
He said that the league was not adulterated, but that the Civil Guard and the Prosecutor’s Office were investigating the case, which had been the problem of Spanish football for the last 20 years. He said that they should not divert the attention from that.
He also refused to comment on the similar remarks made by his Barca counterpart Xavi, saying that he did not want to explain his thoughts on that here.
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He also expressed his displeasure over the leaks of the audios from the VAR room during some Real Madrid matches, saying that it was not good to make public the confidential information.
He added that, apart from that, the referees were saying tA photo of Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid coach, wearing a suit and tie and looking serious.he right words from the football perspective, and that he respected their feelings.
