Real Madrid president Florentino P\u00e9rez and FC Barcelona have been summoned to appear before a Madrid court on November 25 for a conciliation hearing ahead of possible criminal proceedings for defamation against P\u00e9rez, according to sources close to the case cited by Agence France-Presse.<\/p>\n
The hearing follows legal action Barcelona launched on June 12 over comments P\u00e9rez made in May accusing the Catalan club of manoeuvring to obtain favourable treatment from referees. Barcelona said the move was intended to force P\u00e9rez to retract statements it described as knowingly false, defamatory and damaging to the club\u2019s image and reputation, warning that a failed conciliation would be followed by a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
The Negreira case at the centre of the dispute<\/p>\n
The dispute centres on remarks P\u00e9rez made at a May 12 press conference concerning the long-running Negreira case, a saga that has already fed into Real Madrid\u2019s broader friction with La Liga\u2019s leadership and its public criticism of refereeing standards, including the club\u2019s recent dispute over its own broadcast output. Spanish courts are investigating payments said to be up to \u20ac7 million made over almost two decades by Barcelona to companies linked to Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Enr\u00edquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain\u2019s refereeing committee, to determine whether they were intended to secure a competitive advantage. Barcelona denies wrongdoing, maintains the payments were for reports on referees, and a court dismissed bribery charges against the club in 2024.<\/p>\n
What P\u00e9rez said<\/p>\n
At the May press conference, P\u00e9rez described the affair as \u201cthe most serious case of corruption in football,\u201d adding: \u201cWe could never have imagined Barcelona giving money to the head of the referees.\u201d He went further, tying the case directly to Real Madrid\u2019s own trophy record: \u201cI\u2019ve won seven leagues. I could have won twice as many. The others were stolen from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
DateEventMay 12P\u00e9rez makes the disputed remarks at a press conferenceJune 12Barcelona launches legal action over the commentsNovember 25Conciliation hearing scheduled in Madrid<\/p>\n
November 25 hearing is the next step<\/p>\n
For now, the case remains at the conciliation stage rather than active criminal proceedings. Should the November 25 hearing fail to produce a retraction, Barcelona has said it will proceed with a formal criminal complaint against P\u00e9rez, adding a fresh legal front to a rivalry already strained by years of argument over the Negreira payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid president Florentino P\u00e9rez and FC Barcelona have been summoned to appear before a Madrid court on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-631656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}