Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti has fired back at FC Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta and claims that his team benefits from biased officiating, saying “Everyone knows what happened in Spanish football” on Friday.
Earlier this week, Mundo Deportivo reported how Laporta claimed that VAR had been taken “hostage” by Los Blancos and competition “adulterated” in reaction to a controversial 3-2 win they enjoyed at the Bernabeu over Almeria last Sunday.
“We are seeing that an instrument that was there to help [the referees], the VAR, is not helping them and has been taken hostage, like an abuse victim, based on pressure that our rival is exerting continuously and constantly, which is no longer punctual but consistent,” Laporta protested.
“These pressures have been taking place for a long time and are bearing fruit. Because the decisions are all favourable to this team,” he added.
Asked about this at his pre-match press conference on Friday, before his team takes on Las Palmas, Ancelotti answered: “I don’t like getting into these controversies, [but] the truth is that this week they have talked a lot.
“I think the same thing I already said, that we shouldn’t divert the shot [elsewhere]. Everyone knows what has happened in Spanish football and that’s the problem,” he added, in reference to the ‘Caso Negreira’ scandal where Barca has been found to have paid more than $8 million to the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees but denies wrongdoing.
“The league is not adulterated. The Civil Guard and the Prosecutor’s Office are investigating and that has been the problem of Spanish football for the last 20 years. We must not divert the shot [elsewhere],” Ancelotti also said.
Then pushed to address similar remarks as Laporta’s from his Barca opposite number Xavi, Ancelotti responded: “I don’t want to explain what my thoughts on this are here.”
Regarding leaks made to journalist Gerard Romero, of audios from the VAR room during some Real Madrid matches, Ancelotti sees “confidential information” becoming public as “not so good”.
“Apart from that, these are the right words from the referees – from football – and the feelings they have,” Ancelotti concluded on this matter.
