April 4 – Barcelona have made another request for outspoken Spanish league president Javier Tebas (pictured) to resign because of his attacks on the club.
The latest spat came after a newspaper report alleged the league gave false evidence against Barcelona to prosecutors over the burgeoning referees scandal involving the Catalan club.
Barcelona has been under scrutiny ever since it became public that the club paid millions of dollars for years to a company that belonged to the vice president of the country’s refereeing committee.
Barca has denied any wrongdoing, saying the payments were for only technical reports, not to try to influence refereeing decisions.
But Tebas, in turn, has called for the resignation of Barcelona president Joan Laporta if he didn’t properly explain the payments.
In the latest dispute, Tebas has already insisted the report by La Vanguardia newspaper was misleading and carried incorrect assumptions, but it wasn’t enough prevent a vendetta between the two sides from re-igniting.
“It is not the first time that the president of La Liga has used the media weapons at his disposal to damage FC Barcelona,” Barca said in a statement. “However, in contrast to his usual nonsense, we could never have imagined that he could try to incriminate our club with false evidence.”
Barcelona said the article published by La Vanguardia “is of such gravity that it should put all the clubs in La Liga on alert, given that it talks of practices which are in no way consistent with the job” of league president.
“If only for this fact, that of giving himself powers that do not belong to him, although also for reasons of dignity and respect for the presidency of La Liga, Mr. Tebas should resign from his post,” the club said.
“Nevertheless, aware of his obsession with persecuting FC Barcelona and showing his constant averse and manifest dislike of our club, we understand that the current La Liga president will persist in his efforts to keep damaging our club.”
Tebas asked for a correction by the newspaper, saying the article “includes assertions and erroneous information” which “seriously damage my honour” and “the image” of the Spanish league.
“While the headline is grossly misleading, in the Vanguardia article itself it states that La Liga explicitly does not seek to speculate nor accuse anyone with the documentation provided,” the league said.
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