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A Madrid court has summoned Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and representatives of FC Barcelona to attend a conciliation hearing on November 25, following legal action launched by the Catalan club.
Barcelona initiated proceedings against Perez on June 12 over remarks he made in May accusing the club of manipulating referee decisions.
Barcelona stated that the action aims to force Perez to retract statements it described as “knowingly false, defamatory and damaging to the club’s image and reputation,” warning that failure to resolve will prompt a formal criminal defamation lawsuit.
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The dispute stems from comments Perez made during a May 12 press conference addressing the Negreira affair, an ongoing judicial investigation into payments totalling roughly seven million euros made by Barcelona to companies linked to former refereeing committee vice president Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.
While Barcelona maintains that the payments covered legitimate scouting reports on referees—leading a court to dismiss bribery charges in 2024—Perez publicly labelled the matter “the most serious case of corruption in football.”
He sparked further outrage from the Catalan side by questioning the legitimacy of past domestic titles and criticising officiating oversight.
“We could never have imagined Barcelona giving money to the head of the referees,” Perez stated during the press conference.
He added, “I’ve won seven leagues. I could have won twice as many. The others were stolen from me.”
