Real Madrid and Barcelona set for court battle over Florentino Perez claims

Real Madrid and Barcelona are heading to court for a conciliation hearing on November 25 (Marca).

The hearing follows a defamation complaint Barcelona filed over comments Madrid president Florentino Perez made during a press conference in May. 

Barcelona want Perez to retract his statement as they consider it defamatory and damaging to the club’s reputation.

The Catalan club has made it clear they will file a criminal complaint if Perez does not attend the hearing or withdraw his comments.

Perez made comments about payments made by Barcelona to companies linked to former Spanish refereeing official Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

He described the case as ‘the biggest scandal in history’ and accused Barcelona of benefiting from refereeing decisions. 

“The corruption in the Negreira case is systemic,” he said. “It’s the biggest scandal in history. And to have to listen to the president of the CTA saying that these are things we should forget.

“But how can we forget them? We’re preparing a 500-page dossier to send to UEFA.

“I’ve already spoken with them. There’s no precedent for this in the history of world football. Real Madrid members are with me in my fight against Negreira. 

“It’s not always Real Madrid that suffers – other teams do too. Barca always benefits. How can we forget the biggest corruption case in history? 

“Let’s see if we’re serious and UEFA finally gets involved in this matter, which they will, because they can’t allow the most important football, which is European football, to be under suspicion of corruption paid for over 20 years.

“I’ve been here I don’t know how many seasons and I’ve only won seven Champions Leagues and seven leagues, which could have been 14 because seven leagues were stolen from me.”

Barcelona vice-president Rafael Yuste hit back at Perez, accusing him of using ‘slander to destabilise’ the club and said they would defend their reputation in court.