Florentino Pérez Facing Court Hearing as Barcelona Demands Retraction Over ‘Robbed’ League Claims

The long-running war between Real Madrid and Barcelona has taken another turn, with Florentino Pérez facing a legal confrontation over comments he made regarding the controversial Negreira case and Real Madrid’s lost LaLiga titles.

Pérez claimed in May that Real Madrid had won seven league titles during his time as president but could have won 14, alleging that seven had been “robbed.” He also criticised Barcelona over the Negreira affair and questioned the legitimacy of the refereeing environment surrounding Spanish football.

Barcelona subsequently launched a formal conciliation process against Pérez, accusing him of making statements that were damaging to the club’s reputation and demanding that he retract them. The club’s official statement confirmed that the action was a preliminary step before a potential criminal complaint for alleged slander under Article 205 of the Spanish Penal Code.

The reported hearing represents the next stage of that process. According to Spanish media reports, Pérez can attend personally or be represented legally, while Barcelona’s position remains that a satisfactory retraction could bring the dispute to an end. If the conciliation process fails, the Catalan club has warned that it could proceed with the corresponding criminal complaint.

The case adds another layer to an increasingly bitter institutional rivalry between Spain’s two biggest clubs, with the Negreira case continuing to generate legal, sporting and political consequences.

For now, the key issue is whether Pérez will retract the disputed statements or whether the disagreement will move beyond the conciliation stage and into a criminal proceeding.