‘Have the referees’ vice president on payroll…’: Atletico Madrid lash out at Barcelona invoking the Negreira case

FC Barcelona’s pursuit of Julian Alvarez took a bizarre turn earlier today when Atletico Madrid decided to take to social media and attempt to mock their rivals.

In a series of strange posts on their official accounts on social media, the Rojiblancos put out ironic statements as “offers” with images of some Barça players in the Atleti kit.

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Not stopping there, they also aimed a dig at Barcelona sporting director Deco with a sarcastic post claiming they had ‘not offered’ him a post on their scouting department in Brazil.

All these posts were made in response to Fabrizio Romano breaking the news earlier today that Barcelona had made an opening offer of €100 million to sign Alvarez from Atletico Madrid.

Escalating matters

Now, Atletico took things to another level by issuing another statement. This time, the tone shifted from irony and mockery to a direct and serious response regarding what the club described as a campaign surrounding the player.

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“No, Atletico Madrid would never do something like that. However, in recent months, we’ve been suffering a smear campaign against one of our players,” the statement started.

“Leaked information with ulterior motives, ‘fake news,’ constant disrespect, the Cule version of the propaganda machine inventing little stories, calls before direct matchups…”