Florentino Pérez’s shift on the Negreira case, from caution to crusade | OneFootball

El Periódico Mediterráneo reports that the Negreira case has become a key battleground in Real Madrid’s election. “Florentino backed Barcelona when the case broke because of his Super League interest,” Enrique Riquelme told EL PERIÓDICO. Pérez hit back in Toledo, branding the candidate soft and casting himself as the scourge of the scandal.

The case surfaced on 15 February 2023 via Cadena Ser, which revealed prosecutors were probing 1.4 million euros Barcelona paid between 2016 and 2018. Madrid’s first public line arrived days later, urging respect for judicial timings, and on 10 March prosecutors filed complaints as payments over at least 17 years, at least 7.4 million euros, became clear.

Madrid said on 12 March it would join the case, filing on 4 April. LaLiga and the RFEF had already been admitted on 15 and 18 March, with Madrid accepted on 26 May. On 27 October 2023 El Confidencial reported the club had sought no fresh investigative steps.

Pérez’s first substantive remarks came on 11 November 2023, brief and deferential to the courts. In November 2024 he skipped the subject at the assembly, later saying Barcelona and Madrid should help each other.

The tone flipped in late 2025, with Pérez invoking Negreira repeatedly and then labelling it the most serious scandal in football history. He ordered a 600-page refereeing dossier for UEFA, now alleges systematic corruption and says LaLiga and the federation are complicit, and has claimed seven league titles could have been 14, prompting a referees’ union complaint.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo