Real Madrid and Barcelona set for court battle over Florentino Perez claims | OneFootball

Real Madrid and Barcelona are heading to court, with Florentino Perez and the Catalan club set to attend a conciliation hearing in Madrid on November 25, MARCA reports.

The hearing follows a defamation complaint Barcelona filed over comments made by the Madrid president during a press conference in May.

The meeting is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. in courtroom 1/2 of the Madrid courthouse and could determine whether the dispute develops into a criminal case.

Barcelona want Perez to retract his statement as they consider it defamatory and damaging to the club’s reputation.

The Catalan club has made it clear they will file a criminal complaint if Perez does not attend the hearing or withdraw his comments.

Perez made certain comments about payments made by Barcelona to companies linked to former Spanish refereeing official José María Enríquez Negreira.

He described the case as “the biggest scandal in history” and accused Barcelona of benefiting from refereeing decisions.

He also said Madrid had prepared a 500-page dossier for UEFA and claimed that European football could not ignore allegations that had continued for more than 20 years.

“The corruption in the Negreira case is systemic,” he said. “It’s the biggest scandal in history. And to have to listen to the president of the CTA saying that these are things we should forget.

“But how can we forget them? We’re preparing a 500-page dossier that we’re going to send to UEFA.

“I’ve already spoken with them. There’s no precedent for this in the history of world football. Real Madrid members are with me in my fight against Negreira.

“It’s not always Real Madrid that suffers; other teams do too. Barça always benefits. How can we forget the biggest corruption case in history?

“Let’s see if we’re serious and UEFA finally gets involved in this matter, which they will, because they can’t allow the most important football, which is European football, to be under suspicion of corruption paid for over 20 years.

“I’ve been here I don’t know how many seasons and I’ve only won seven Champions Leagues and seven Leagues, which could have been 14 because 7 Leagues were stolen from me.”

Barcelona vice-president Rafael Yuste hit back at Perez, accusing the Madrid president of using “slander to destabilise” the club and said the La Liga champions would defend its reputation in court.