Super League-conspiring best buddies, raging together against everything from the financial clout of the Premier League, to the power of UEFA, Real Madrid and Barcelona have been walking hand-in-hand for the last couple of years.
But that special relationship is now a bin fire after Joan Laporta used the dreaded phrase 'club of the regime' in his two-hour long press conference on Monday.
He didn't exactly call them the club of the regime, he said 'they were considered the club of the regime' but the four words still hung in the air on Monday, toxic and pungent.