Real Madrid called a board meeting on Sunday to discuss Barcelona’s alleged attempts to influence referees.
On Friday, Spanish prosecutors filed a complaint against Barcelona and two former La Liga club presidents over alleged payments to a company owned by a senior referee to influence the outcome of the game.
The club are said to have paid more than €7.3m (£6.4m) between 2001 and 2018 to companies owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negrera, who held a position at the Spanish Football Federation between 1993 and 2018.
Barcelona denied any wrongdoing.
Real Madrid said in a statement that its president, Florentino Perez, held a board meeting on Sunday midday “to decide on the actions that Real Madrid deems appropriate in this regard.”
Prosecutors claim that, under a secret agreement and “for money”, Negrera favored Barcelona “in the referees’ decisions in the club’s matches, as well as in the results of the competitions”.
A senior Barcelona official told Reuters the club had been expecting the complaint but said it was “nothing more than a fully preliminary investigative hypothesis” by prosecutors and “now is the time for the judicial investigation to properly begin”.
The official added that “the club will fully cooperate with the investigation by any means necessary” and “reiterates that they have not bought a referee and have not attempted to influence any official’s decisions.”
The club denied any wrongdoing in a statement last month, saying it simply paid an outside consultant who provided it with “technical reports relating to professional refereeing”, describing it as “a common practice at professional football clubs”.
The complaint focuses on €2.9m paid between 2014 and 2018 and claims that Barcelona, with the help of former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, reached a “confidential oral agreement” with Negrera.
The club accuses Rosell, Bartomeu, Negrera and two former Barcelona officials of corruption in sport, unfair management and lying in business documents.
The investigation began with a tax audit. Negrera told the Spanish tax authority that Barcelona’s goal for the payments is to have “neutral” referees in their matches, according to El Pais.
