Barcelona condemn Sevilla after club officials refuse to meet for traditional lunch due to refereeing scandal concerns

• Sevilla refused to meet for lunch
• Barca 'breaks all relations' with Spanish club
• Teams meet at Olympic Stadium this evening

WHAT HAPPENED? Sevilla announced earlier on Friday that they would not attend the meal typically shared among the board of directors, or accept Barcelona's invitation to their VIP box due to the latest developments in Barcelona's refereeing scandal. Spanish prosecutors officially charged the club as a whole with bribery on Thursday, six months after it was first revealed that specific individuals had been accused of paying a company owned by a high-ranking refereeing official over €7.3 million.

WHAT THEY SAID?: Barcelona issued a statement in response to Sevilla's decision.

"FC Barcelona wants to publicly show its rejection of an unjustified and inappropriate attack by Sevilla FC, a club that today refused to sit at the table at the institutional lunch between directives prior to this evening's match between the two teams at the Lluis Olympic Stadium Companies, where their representatives have also refused to attend the Llotja d'Honor," the statement read.

"The so-called Negreira Case cannot serve as an excuse for such actions, since the judicial procedure is in a very premature investigation phase and Sevilla FC's position clearly prejudges facts that, in no case, and in any his preliminary and hypothetical typifications, are accredited."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Barca also announced that they have severed relations with their counterparts:

"Faced with this inadmissible and unjustified position of Sevilla FC, FC Barcelona breaks all relations with the Sevilla institution to the extent that it does not rectify its current position.

IN THREE PHOTOS:

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WHAT NEXT? The two clubs are currently facing off at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.