AS.com

Barcelona used its own cameras to record special videos of Pepe in the four Clásicos which took place within the space of two weeks in 2011.

Each of those games were fiercely competitive and Barça's aim was to catch the Portuguese kicking Barcelona players when he was not near the ball , and conduct a smear campaign against him.

The information was revealed by the radio programme 'El club de la mitjanit' on Catalunya Radio.

The filming was the basis for Tito Vilanova's comments after el Clásico on 7 October, when the Barcelona coach said "you can made a film of all the time Pep has kicked us" in response to the Portuguese defender saying Barça players had acted "theatrically" to Real Madrid's tackles.

Vilanova knew of the existence of the video because it was the club's scouts who did the filming, presumably with the approval of then coach Pep Guardiola.

According to Catalunya Radio, in the video there are various occasions when Pepe can be seen acting aggressively towards Leo Messi when the ball was out of play.

Barcelona, on the advice of Pep Guardiola, decided against leaking the video to the press, because it would have been clear that the club had organised the filming.