Barcelona’s Legal Challenge Over Pérez Comments Reaches Court

Barcelona’s Legal Challenge Over Pérez Comments Reaches Court Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez and FC Barcelona have been summoned to appear before a Madrid court on November 25 for a conciliation hearing ahead of possible criminal proceedings for defamation against Pérez, according to sources close to the case cited by Agence France-Presse. The hearing follows legal action Barcelona launched on June 12 over comments Pérez made in May accusing the Catalan club of manoeuvring to obtain favourable treatment from referees. Barcelona said the move was intended to force Pérez to retract statements it described as knowingly false, defamatory and damaging to the club’s image and reputation, warning that a failed conciliation would be followed by a criminal complaint. The Negreira case at the centre of the dispute The dispute centres on remarks Pérez made at a May 12 press conference concerning the long-running Negreira case, a saga that has already fed into Real Madrid’s broader friction with La Liga’s leadership and its public criticism of refereeing standards, including the club’s recent dispute over its own broadcast output . Spanish courts are investigating payments said to be up to €7 million made over almost two decades by Barcelona to companies linked to José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee, to determine whether they were intended to secure a competitive advantage. Barcelona denies wrongdoing, maintains the payments were for reports on referees, and a court dismissed bribery charges against the club in 2024. What Pérez said At the May press conference, Pérez described the affair as “the most serious case of corruption in football,” adding: “We could never have imagined Barcelona giving money to the head of the referees.” He went further, tying the case directly to Real Madrid’s own trophy record: “I’ve won seven leagues. I could have won twice as many. The others were stolen from me.” Florentino Pérez attending a breakfast meeting hosted by Europa Press in Madrid. November 25 hearing is the next step For now, the case remains at the conciliation stage rather than active criminal proceedings. Should the November 25 hearing fail to produce a retraction, Barcelona has said it will proceed with a formal criminal complaint against Pérez, adding a fresh legal front to a rivalry already strained by years of argument over the Negreira payments.