The dispute between Barcelona and Florentino Pérez has escalated from public statements and official releases into the legal realm, after a Madrid court summoned the Real Madrid president and the Catalan club to a formal conciliation hearing.
The court has scheduled the session for November 25, a mandatory legal step preceding the criminal lawsuit Barcelona have threatened to file against Pérez on charges of defamation and damage to the club’s reputation.
The dispute stems from comments made by Pérez during a press conference on May 12, which he reiterated in a media interview the following day, linking Barcelona’s past titles and match results directly to the José María Enríquez Negreira case.
The Real Madrid president claimed he had won seven league titles when he could have won 14, alleging that the remaining trophies were “stolen” from his club, while describing the Negreira affair as the greatest corruption scandal in football history.
On June 12, Barcelona filed a mandatory petition for conciliation, demanding that Pérez formally retract statements they described as knowingly false and damaging to the club’s image and standing.
The Negreira case involves payments exceeding €7 million made by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018 to companies affiliated with the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA). Bribery charges were previously dropped as Negreira was not deemed a public official, though investigations into other potential offenses remain ongoing.
Should Pérez retract his statements during the hearing, Barcelona could close the matter; however, his failure to attend or refusal to withdraw the comments will prompt the Catalan club, per their declared stance, to proceed with a formal criminal defamation lawsuit.
