Florentino Perez summoned to court over Barcelona defamation claim

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been ordered to attend a Madrid court after Barcelona accused him of making defamatory comments about the club and the Negreira refereeing case.

Perez and Barcelona have both been summoned to a conciliation hearing on 25 November. The hearing could precede criminal proceedings if the dispute cannot be resolved.

Barcelona began the legal action on 12 June, seeking the withdrawal of remarks Perez made during a press conference in May. The club said the Real Madrid president had made statements he knew were false and which had harmed Barcelona’s reputation.

Barcelona has also warned that it will make a criminal complaint if the conciliation process does not produce an agreement.

Dispute over referee payments

The case centres on allegations concerning payments Barcelona made over almost two decades to companies connected to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain’s refereeing committee.

The payments amounted to up to 7 million euros. Spanish courts are investigating whether they were intended to give Barcelona an unfair sporting advantage.

Barcelona denies any wrongdoing and says the money was paid for referee analysis reports. A court dismissed bribery charges against the club in 2024.

Relations between the two clubs have been further strained by Perez’s public comments about the investigation. He described it as “the most serious case of corruption in football”.

“We could never have imagined Barcelona giving money to the head of the referees,” Perez said.

The Real Madrid president also claimed that refereeing decisions during the period covered by the investigation had cost his club league titles.

“I’ve won seven leagues. I could have won twice as many. The others were stolen from me,” he said.

Barcelona’s legal action is focused on those remarks and its demand that Perez retract them. The 25 November hearing will give both sides an opportunity to address the dispute before Barcelona decides whether to proceed with a criminal complaint.

The Negreira investigation remains separate from the defamation claim, with the court process concerning whether Perez’s statements about Barcelona were unlawful rather than determining whether the payments themselves were intended to influence sporting outcomes.