Real Madrid to take legal action against Barcelona for refereeing scandal

Real Madrid will join the complaint filed on Friday by Spanish prosecutors against Barcelona and two of the LaLiga club's ex-presidents over alleged payments to a company owned by a senior refereeing official to influence match results, the club said on Sunday.

The European and Spanish football champions called an urgent board meeting to discuss alleged attempts by arch-rivals Barcelona to influence referees and decided to take legal action for what they called "serious accusations" by prosecutors.

"Real Madrid express their deep concern about the seriousness of the facts and reiterate their full confidence in the action of the justice and have agreed that, in defence of their legitimate interests, they will join the complaint as soon as the judge takes up the case," the club said in an official statement.

Barcelona allegedly paid more than 7.3 million euros ($7.8 million) between 2001 and 2018 to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was vice-president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football association from 1993-2018.