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23rd January 2024
01:35pm GMT
Real Madrid TV have sensationally claimed that Barcelona manager Xavi's 600 games as a player are "under suspicion".
The comments were made by the club's official club channel after Xavi gave his thoughts on Madrid's controversial 3-2 win against Almeria at the weekend.
Almeria were leading 2-0 at the time and were on the verge of recording their first league win of the season only for Carlo Ancelotti's side to stage an impressive comeback and score three goals without reply.
There were multiple contentious decisions which even left Almeria claiming on their official website the referee and VAR had "ruined" their day.
After beating Real Betis 4-2 at the weekend, Xavi claimed that it would be "very difficult to win this league" after being asked about the controversies.
According to Marca, he said: "I've seen it. If we speak, they sanction us... but everyone has seen it.
"I already said in Getafe that there were things that didn't fit me, that it was going to be very difficult to win this League. There are things that we don't control. It's been seen by everyone."
Shortly after Xavi's comments, Real Madrid TV made a sensational claim around Xavi's time as a player.
Host Miguel Ángel Muñoz said: "The world is upside down, the little birds shoot at the shotguns and the fact that Xavi comes out making these statements never ceases to surprise. They are a smokescreen, which he knows how to do very well."
Director of RMTV Jesús Alcaide then added: "It is curious that Xavi finds things that happen in LaLiga strange and it seems normal that practically throughout his entire football career, for 20 years, his club has been paying the vice president of the referees around 8 million.
"I insist, during Xavi's entire career. For 20 years. There are a total, we have counted, of 600 games of Mr. Xavi Hernández's career as a FC Barcelona player, with his corresponding titles.
"We don't say it, the judge, the prosecutor, the Civil Guard say it... Those 600 matches are under suspicion. It's the reality. His club is accused. The entire time when Xavi was a FC Barcelona player is being investigated."
In March last year, prosecutors filed a complaint over alleged payments of more than €7.3million (£6.3m) over 17 years to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish football federation's refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018.
Barcelona have denied all wrongdoing and claimed in a statement in February 2023 that the club had paid an external consultant who supplied it with "technical reports related to professional refereeing".
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