Daily Thread: 25 February 2023

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Felipejack, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Valyrian Steel

Gameday!! Madrid derby.

Yet another Madrid derby with also consequences for the title race. Los Blancos have to win to keep pace with Barcelona and hope that the Catalans slip up in the race to the finish.

Insight from Modric.

Speaking to BT Sport’s Rio Ferdinand for a ‘Behind the Lines’ special feature, Luka Modric also revealed that the toughest opponent he came up against was Andres Iniesta.

We cannot stand for this, if proven true of course!!

A lawsuit was presented in the courts in Barcelona yesterday and alleges that former referees chief, Enriquez Negreira provided advice and services ‘with the aim of securing refereeing decisions favourable to the interests of FC Barcelona’ while he was CTA vice-president, in different seasons from 2003 to 2018.

The document shows he was paid around £1.2m by Barcelona via his company DASNIL 95 SL between 2016 and 2018, meaning he was on the payroll of one of the clubs while carrying out a supposedly neutral role for the governing body.

A case is also brought against Enriquez Negreira’s son Javier Enríquez Romero, who managed the company and who provided ‘coaching’ services to active referees when taking them from their hotel to the stadium.

La Liga for their part has said it cannot investigate cases from more than three years ago, seemingly ruling out punishments like Barcelona being docked points or titles being removed. La Liga chief Javier Tebas however said: ‘If he (Laporta) does not justify properly or in a more reasonable way what has occurred, I believe he should resign.