Real Madrid write to UEFA for disciplinary action against Barcelona

Real Madrid have written to UEFA looking for the footballing body to take disciplinary action against Barcelona, announcing this through a post on their website and through their social media channels.

This follows the announcement from the Catalan club that they were in the process of launching legal action against Los Blancos due to comments made by Florentino Perez in a press conference ahead of his club’s presidential election.

The Real Madrid president claimed that Barcelona had stolen seven La Liga titles during his time in charge at the Bernabeu, with this currently being investigated in the Negreira case.

Now, Los Blancos have sent a letter to UEFA requesting them to take disciplinary action against Barcelona regarding this case.

Real Madrid have alleged to UEFA that payments made by Barcelona to the former vice-president of the referees' committee pose ‘a systemic risk of the utmost seriousness to the integrity of competitions'.

In their statement requesting disciplinary action, they said: “Real Madrid CF announces that, in relation to the so-called 'Negreira Case', it has submitted a letter to UEFA addressed to its disciplinary bodies.

“In this document, the club has informed UEFA of the existence of relevant evidence that conclusively reinforces the indications already known from the beginning about the existence of prolonged, opaque payments lacking any verifiable justification, made by FC Barcelona to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, José María Enríquez Negreira, through different corporate structures.

“Real Madrid emphasizes that these events, from the perspective of sports disciplinary law, constitute a systemic risk of the utmost seriousness to the integrity of competitions by demonstrating the existence of a structure of undue influence over the refereeing body, incompatible with the essential principles of competitive equality, neutrality, impartiality and unpredictability of the sporting result.

“In this context, Real Madrid has urged the immediate resumption of the disciplinary proceedings initiated by UEFA, considering it unacceptable that this situation has been prolonged, as its persistence seriously compromises the credibility of football, its institutions and its leaders and therefore demands a firm, exemplary and immediate response in the sporting arena, independent of the outcome of the ongoing legal proceedings.

“Therefore, our club requests that UEFA, in the exercise of its own autonomous and independent powers, adopt the appropriate disciplinary and restorative measures to guarantee the integrity, transparency, and proper functioning of the competitions, without this implying, under any circumstances, replacing the function of the state's judicial bodies or prejudging a criminal classification of the facts. In this regard, Real Madrid, a party to the ongoing criminal proceedings as a private prosecutor, will continue to pursue, as it has done since the beginning, the corresponding actions at each procedural stage.”