Real Madrid have released a detailed video taking a hit at Barcelona’s links to former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and his fascist regime.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta recently referenced their Clasico rivals, calling them a ‘club of the regime’ while trying to defend the corruption charges in the Enriquez Negreira case, at a recent press conference. The phrase was used to link Madrid to Franco during his 40-year reign of Spain between 1933 and 1975.
Real Madrid release video hitting back at Barcelona
Barcelona have been charged with paying referees over the last two decades, which have ruled results in their favour. However, the defending La Liga champions produced video evidence and text that link Barcelona to the former dictator. They asked, “Which is the team of the regime?” in response to Barcelona’s comments on the matter.
They allege that the club offered him three medals, honorary membership of the club and had more success on the pitch when he was reigning. Barcelona won eight La Liga titles and nine Copas del Generalisimo (Copa del Reys) during Franco’s reign, while Real Madrid did not win a single league title for 15 years.
Joan Laporta said the following with regards to Real Madrid:
“They (Real) claim to feel aggravated in sporting terms by this. This comes from a club, as we all know, that has been favoured from refereeing back in history and still nowadays. A club that was regarded as ‘the club of the regime’ back in the days.
“Why was that? Because of how close they were to the political, economical and sportive power… it might have to be remembered that during seven decades, the majority of presidents and officials from the refereeing committee were former Real Madrid partners, former Real Madrid footballers or former Real Madrid executives. During 70 years, the people in charge to make decisions in that regard were from Real Madrid.
“Seeing now that this club joins the official complaint and declares themselves disadvantaged from a sporting point of view is an unprecedented show of cynicism. I hope the whole trial puts them in the place they should be.”
Real Madrid are reportedly not done after the video, and plan to release more defensive content. They are not expected to be tolerant of any such comments, and are also planning to testify in Barcelona’s corruption case.
