Barcelona announced on Friday that it has filed a pre-lawsuit conciliation request against Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, accusing him of making defamatory statements about the club.

According to an official statement released by the Catalan side, the action relates to comments Perez made during a press conference on May 12 and in a media interview the following day.

WHAT IS BARCELONA CLAIMING?

Barcelona argues that Pérez accused the club of “corruption,” “enriching referees,” and being “consistently favored” by match officials in reference to the ongoing Negreira case.

“The purpose of this action is for Mr. Pérez to retract certain statements that were made with knowledge of their falsity and that are defamatory and damaging to the club’s image and reputation,” Barcelona said in its statement.

The club added that if the request is not properly addressed, it will proceed with a formal criminal complaint.

NOT THE FIRST WARNING

Barcelona acting president Rafael Yuste had already signaled earlier this week that the club’s legal department was preparing action in response to what he described as “the most terrible slander.”

“We will see each other in court,” Yuste said. “I’ll tell you one thing: nobody stains Barça’s name or this badge. Nobody touches any of you either—we will take care of that. Trust us, because we will go after them, and we believe we have the winning case.”

THE NEGREIRA CASE

The Negreira case centers on payments made by Barcelona over several years to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees, through companies linked to him.

Spanish prosecutors suspect that the payments, which exceeded €7 million between 2001 and 2018, may have been intended to influence the refereeing establishment. Barcelona, however, maintains that the funds were used to obtain technical reports and advisory services regarding referees and officiating matters.

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