Barcelona summon Real Madrid's Florentino Perez to court

Barcelona have taken their institutional warfare against Real Madrid a step further, successfully summoning president Florentino Pérez to a Madrid court on November 25, 2026, for a mandatory conciliation hearing.

Filed under Article 205 of the Spanish Penal Code, Barcelona's legal action demands a formal and public retraction of explosive remarks Pérez made during a May 12 press conference.

Addressing the ongoing "Caso Negreira," an investigation into more than €7 million in payments made by Barcelona to former refereeing vice-president José María Enríquez Negreira over nearly two decades, Pérez launched a scathing attack on the Blaugrana's historical integrity.

The Real Madrid president described the case as "the biggest scandal in history," telling reporters: "They've been paying for two decades, but now it's the same referees for this third decade."

Beyond condemning the payments, Pérez accused Barcelona of actively robbing Real Madrid of domestic supremacy during his two presidential tenures (2000–2006 and 2009–present). 

In further remarks around the same press conference, Pérez declared: "I have been here for I don't know how many seasons and I have only won seven Champions Leagues and seven Leagues, which could be 14 because 7 Leagues have been stolen from me."

Barcelona, whose bribery charges related to the Negreira payments were dismissed on jurisdictional grounds by a court in 2024 (the judge ruling that Negreira did not qualify as a public official under Spanish law, rather than ruling on the merits of the payments themselves) categorised Pérez's utterances as knowingly false, defamatory, and severely damaging to the club's global image.

The wider investigation into sporting corruption and dishonest administration has continued since, with former club presidents still testifying in court as recently as September 2025.

The November 25 conciliation hearing, scheduled for 9:40 a.m. in the Madrid courts, represents the final non-penal step in this dispute.

Should Pérez fail to attend the summoning or refuse to retract his accusations, Barcelona's board has confirmed the club will immediately proceed with filing formal criminal slander charges against the Real Madrid president.