Barcelona seek legal action against Pérez
Barcelona have called on Spanish football authorities to take coordinated legal action against Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez as the dispute over the Negreira case escalates across domestic and European institutions.
FC Barcelona have urged LaLiga, the Spanish Football Federation and the Referees’ Technical Committee to take legal action against Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, escalating a dispute with implications for the governance and reputation of Spanish football.Barcelona president Rafael Yuste sent a formal letter to LaLiga president Javier Tebas, RFEF president Rafael Louzán and CTA president Francisco Soto concerning public statements made by Pérez on May 12 and 13.Barcelona said: “The club considers that these comments, aside from being untrue, are a grave attack on the honour and image of the league competition in the First Division and also on the refereeing community as a whole.”The club said Pérez’s remarks had damaged the reputation and credibility of professional football in Spain and asked the three bodies to adopt urgent and coordinated measures within their respective powers.Barcelona’s intervention follows their submission of a conciliation request, a preliminary legal step through which they are seeking a retraction from Pérez before deciding whether to pursue a criminal complaint for alleged slander.The dispute centres on comments linking Barcelona to alleged corruption and refereeing influence in connection with the Negreira case.Barcelona made payments between 2001 and 2018 to companies linked to José María Enríquez Negreira, a former vice-president of the CTA. The club have maintained that the payments covered technical reports on referees and deny buying favourable decisions.Pérez has publicly described the affair as evidence of systemic corruption and claimed Real Madrid were disadvantaged during the period in question.The institutional conflict has intensified after Real Madrid submitted a report to UEFA seeking disciplinary action against Barcelona over the case.Barcelona’s letter broadens their response beyond direct legal proceedings by asking the organisations responsible for the league and refereeing system to defend their own standing.The development places LaLiga, the RFEF and the CTA under pressure to determine whether Pérez’s statements warrant regulatory, disciplinary or legal intervention.Any coordinated response would deepen an increasingly formal dispute between Spain’s two largest clubs, with potential consequences for relations between club leadership, domestic governing bodies and UEFA.