FC Barcelona officially files a major complaint against Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez over slander.
However, the friction between the Spotify Camp Nou and the Santiago Bernabéu has recently transcended the boundaries of the field, shifting from a sporting contest into a high-stakes institutional war.
The legal offensive, confirmed through an official club statement on Friday, targets Florentino Pérez following a series of explosive remarks he made regarding the ongoing “Negreira” case.
According to the official Barcelona statement, the Blaugrana have filed a mandatory conciliation request—the essential first step in Spanish law before pursuing a criminal lawsuit for slander.
The dispute centers on a fiery press conference held by Pérez on May 12, as well as a subsequent media interview, in which he allegedly claimed that Barcelona had effectively “stolen” past league titles through systematic refereeing bias.
Barcelona’s legal department, which has been meticulously reviewing the Real Madrid chief’s declarations for the past month, argues that these statements were made with “full knowledge of their falsity.”
The club is demanding a complete and public retraction of the comments, stating that they are “slanderous and offensive” to the image, history, and reputation of the institution.
Internally, the board views this as a necessary defense against what they describe as a deliberate smear campaign intended to overshadow their recent sporting successes.
This legal escalation marks the most significant fracture in the relationship between the two clubs in decades.
While Pérez has historically downplayed the threat of litigation—previously stating that Barcelona “would do well to sue” him—the Catalan side has now officially called his bluff.
Should the Real Madrid president refuse to retract his claims during the conciliation phase, Barcelona has made it clear they will proceed with a full criminal complaint under Article 205 of the Penal Code, ensuring that the next chapter of El Clásico will be written in a courtroom.
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