It is often said grandiloquently of certain shocks, to exaggerate their dimension, “This is much more than a football game”. The classics Barcelona-Real Madrid they tend to generate this type of journalistic excesses that seek to ‘super-lativize’ them, sometimes without any justification beyond the historical rivalry that confronts them.
Barça paid 7.4 million to Negreira
But it is the case that It is Barcelona-Real Madrid meets all the requirements to be qualified as “much more than a party”. Just a month ago the news that has shaken the foundations of Spanish football was uncovered: he Barcelona has paid 7.4 million euros to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees for 17 years of his tenure in office to ensure a supposed referee neutrality, given the favorable treatment that there was towards other teams such as Real Madrid, as the Catalans suspected.
Since then many things have happened. The first is that Barça and its president John Laportawhich quadrupled the amount paid to Negreira for his services, has changed the discourse from the initial “we are going to open an internal investigation to clarify responsibilities” to the victim “we suffered a campaign of harassment and demolition and it is not by chance, you all know it, and its objective is to destabilize the team in the short and medium term, control and keep it I will have time to explain who, why and how”. The truth is A month has passed and Laporta still does not show his face, without calling a press conference to explain what happened and face questions from the press. Nothing that can miss us.
But perhaps the most momentous thing has been the break in relations between Laporta and Florentino, after Real Madrid appeared as a private prosecution in the case of the Negreira Case to have access to the documentation in the investigation. Something that has broken the almost idyllic relationship that both maintained as promoting partners of the League, a relationship that gossips say that has even served the Catalan to activate some financial lever thanks to Florentino’s mediation. The thing is that everything has blown up. Florentino does not bite his tongue when talking about Barça and this arbitration collusion and Laporta is ranting about the whites in private. Their love, or interest, was broken. Namely.
Xavi’s cholismo
And in the midst of this perfect storm that has not yet experienced its peak moment comes this classic that in sports, it must be said, is somewhat watered down due to the nine-point distance that separates Real Madrid and Culés. It feeds from the white trench that Xavi’s men’s legs are shaking and they are still an inconsistent team. Something that reflects more a wish than a reality, because the data speaks of a Barça that has only dropped ten points out of the 75 played, conceding only two defeats, while Real Madrid has drawn five games and lost three. It is true that the glamor and the football exuberance that adorns Xavi’s speech later becomes cholismo when the team takes the field. this barca He has won nine games by the minimum (1-0 or 0-1), and with those nine goals he has added 27 points, 45% of those who look in your locker. Show, therefore, do not offer. Reliability yes.
just the opposite of a Real Madrid to which the league produces enormous laziness. The continued demand is a penance for those of Ancelotti, where the team moves to the rhythm of veteran players like Modric, Kroos or Benzema, who already select their efforts more and they optimize their benefits in matches of lineage, such as those of the Champions League. But the circumstance occurs that this party has it, and that opens the forecasts. Carletto and his people know that if they conquer the Camp Nou they will get close enough to Barça to make them doubtful, even more so with the rarefied environment that surrounds the club with all the scandal of the Negreira Case.
From Burgos, the VAR and Negreira
And then there is the arbitration matter, usual suspects always and more this season, especially in Barça games after the Negreira scandal broke out. The spotlights will be on De Burgos Bengoetxea, Braid that he does not like in Madrid because a past episode in which he sent off Cristiano with a push in the middle and a five-game ban on the Portuguese. Real Madrid already has an alibi, whatever happens. Above in the VAR will be Soto Grado, who has not been particularly lucky in his last performances. So come what may, the arbitrators will be guilty or, at least, accomplices whoever wins. But with everything and with that, the great protagonist of the game will be someone who will not be on the pitch. Not even in the box. José María Enríquez Negreira, the man who has caused a tsunami in Spanish football that is still seeing the wave grow.
So “more than a match” will forever be “the Negreira classic.” The one from Negreira and the Motomami because Barcelona will advertise Rosalía’s album on its shirt, that he will not be able to be in the box because he is on tour in Latin America. The Catalans already wore the Drake logo at Real Madrid-Barça on October 16, Canadian singer-songwriter. Not very flattering precedent for the culés, who they lost 3-1 then. Now they hope to reverse that trend in these ‘musical’ classics.
