Mourinho v Barcelona tussle escalates further
A row between Barcelona and Real Madrid which erupted after Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg escalated on Thursday when the pair filed complaints with UEFA.
A row between Barcelona and Real Madrid which erupted after Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg escalated on Thursday when the pair filed complaints with UEFA.
Barcelona, who won 2-0 in an ill-tempered match at the Bernabeu, struck first when they announced they would formally denounce comments Real coach Jose Mourinho made belittling Pep Guardiola's past achievements.
Real responded by saying they would file their own complaint with European soccer governing body about what they called repeated diving by some of the Barca players.
For their part, UEFA announced disciplinary probes into the Mourinho sending-off and subsequent outburst at his post-match news conference. Real midfielder Pepe and Barca reserve goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto will also face hearings after being shown red cards.
"We want to stand firm when the war of words passes certain limits and we believe Mr Mourinho crossed this line yesterday," Barca spokesman Toni Freixa said. "We are going to present a case to UEFA's Control and Disciplinary committee against him for breaking UEFA's disciplinary code. It's unacceptable that anyone can question our titles or our link with UNICEF.”
In a statement on their website on Thursday, Real said they had no choice but to respond with a representation in a statement to UEFA.
Barca had shown "non-sporting conduct" and their players had "persistently simulated aggression against them with the sole aim of provoking errors from the referee," it said.
BARCA WARNING
Barcelona vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu warned that the club was not going to stand for any more attempts to smear their record by Real or local media. "All year there have been insinuations, lies, information which wasn't true about referees, the calendar and recently doping. It's enough," he said.