Laporta hits out at Florentino Perez ahead of conciliation hearing: ‘His statements were false’

Laporta hits out at Florentino Perez ahead of conciliation hearing: ‘His statements were false’ Speaking to Catalunya Radio (h/t AS), FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has hit out at his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez over his statements on the Negreira case. Earlier this year, Perez called a press conference, during which he lashed out at Barça over the payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Referees’ Technical Committee (CTA). Even though there has been no evidence of wrongdoing found, the Real Madrid president accused Barça of ‘stealing’ several La Liga titles from Los Blancos during that period, between 2001 and 2018. He also referred to the Negreira case as the biggest scandal in the history of the sport. Beyond that, Real Madrid have also taken the matter to UEFA, submitted a detailed dossier of refereeing decisions which they say benefitted Barça. Court hearing in November Following his comments, Barcelona hit back at Perez and initiated legal action against him over slander. At war. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images) The La Liga champions asked the Real Madrid chief to retract his statements and threatened a criminal lawsuit if he did not do so. As reported earlier this week , the legal dispute between the two entities moved into another phase, as the courts have now set a date for the conciliation hearing requested by the Blaugrana against Perez. The Real Madrid president have been summoned to appear at 9:40 a.m. on November 25 at Courts 1 and 2 of Madrid.  Laporta hits back Now, during his interaction with the media, Laporta lashed out at Perez over his comments, stating that everything the Real Madrid chief said was false and that Barcelona will continue to defend their honour. Laporta criticised Florentino Perez. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images) “We defend Barcelona’s honor. His statements were false. His only interest is to insult and harm Barcelona. Real Madrid acted unacceptably,” the Barça president said. As for the Negreira case, he accused Los Blancos of dragging the matter, while confirming that the relationship between the two clubs was as good as dead. “Barcelona will be acquitted,” he confidently said. “Real Madrid is prolonging the situation with an untenable discourse. Relations are nonexistent.” With the relationship between the two clubs at an all-time low, it remains to be seen how the situation develops with the conciliation hearing looming.