Confirmed: Barcelona file official complaint against Real Madrid president Florentino Perez | OneFootball

In a major development, FC Barcelona have officially announced that they have taken the first steps towards filing a lawsuit against Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

This comes after the Los Blancos’ chief’s derogatory comments directed at Barça, wherein he claimed that the Catalans had ‘stolen’ titles from the Spanish capital club with help from referees, pointing fingers at the Negreira case.

Barça had confirmed that their legal team was studying the next course of action against Perez after his comments, and have now announced that they will be filing a lawsuit.

Official statement

The official statement from Barcelona read as follows:

“FC Barcelona reports that today it has filed the required conciliation request prior to filing a lawsuit for the crime of slander under Article 205 of the Penal Code against the President of Real Madrid, Mr. Florentino Perez, as a result of the statements made by him at the press conference on May 12 and in an interview with a media outlet the following day.

“The objective of this lawsuit is for Mr. Perez to retract certain statements he made knowing them to be false, statements that are slanderous and offensive to the image and reputation of the Club.

“Should this demand not be properly addressed, FC Barcelona will proceed to file the corresponding criminal complaint.”

Real Madrid’s response awaited

Perez, for his part, had downplayed the threat of legal action from Barcelona in the past and had doubled down on his criticism on the Blaugrana concerning the Negreira case.

“Barça would do well to sue me. If they think they should, let them do it,” Perez had said.

With Barcelona now acting on their initial claims, it will be interesting to see whether the Real Madrid chief retracts his statements.