Atletico to request charges be brought against Barcelona over Griezmann pursuit LaLiga French forward expected to report for pre-season

It's a transfer saga that has been running for the best part of 18 months and simply won't disappear, yet Atletico Madrid are to request charges be brought against Barcelona for what they deem to be an illegal pursuit of Antoine Griezmann.

The details of Los Colchoneros' complaint centres around the fact the forward had a release clause of 200 million euros which dropped to 120 million euros on July 1.

In response, Atletico released a club statement on Friday evening detailing their position.

'On May 14, Antoine Griezmann informed Miguel Angel Gil Marin, Diego Simeone and Andrea Berta of his decision to leave the club at the end of the season. In the days that followed that meeting, Atletico Madrid learned that Barcelona and the player had come to an agreement as far back as March, specifically in the days after the second leg of our Champions League tie against Juventus. They had also been negotiating the terms of such an agreement since mid-February.

In reference to [Barcelona] president [Josep Maria] Bartomeu's statement made today, we want to state that it's true there was a meeting between Miguel Angel Gil Marin and Barcelona's CEO, Oscar Grau, at the request of Barcelona and that in said meeting, Mr. Grau expressed his intention, once the buy-out clause in Griezmann's contract dropped from 200 to 120 million euros, to request a postponement of the payment of the aforementioned amount of the clause effective as of July 1.

Obviously, the response from Atletico Madrid is negative, understanding that both Barcelona and the player have disrespected Atletico Madrid and all its fans.

As a result of all this, today, Atletico Madrid have requested to the player, via his sister, the agent of the player and his lawyer, that Antoine Griezmann, in compliance with his contractual obligations to our club, appear on Sunday at the training facility in order to start pre-season with the rest of his teammates.

Through this press release, Atletico Madrid wants to express its strongest repulsion for the behaviour of both, especially Barcelona, for having induced the player to breach his contract with Atletico Madrid at one point during the season, when the club was playing, not only the Champions League against Juventus, but also for the league title against Barcelona themselves. This is something we consider violates the protected periods of negotiation with players and alters the basic rules that govern the integrity of all sporting competition, besides being a huge loss to our club and its millions of fans.'