Barcelona call on La Liga and Spanish FA to take action against Real Madrid president Florentino Perez

Releasing a statement on their official website on Wednesday, Barcelona announced that their vice-president, Rafael Yuste, has addressed a formal letter to the leaders of Spanish football. The correspondence was sent to La Liga president Javier Tebas, Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) chief Rafael Louzan, and the head of the Referee's Technical Committee (CTA), Francisco Soto.

The Catalan giants are demanding an institutional response to the remarks made by Perez during his public appearances on May 12 and May 13. The club have firmly stated that these comments are completely untrue and constitute a severe attack on the honour of the top flight, the refereeing community and the credibility of the professional game in Spain.

Barcelona have urged the competition organisers to protect the reputation of their respective institutions, referencing the club's own recent request for conciliation. The official broadcast highlighted their demand for authorities to implement urgent and coordinated legal measures against the Madrid chief. This dramatic escalation follows Perez’s scathing television interview where he discussed the Negreira case.

The Madrid president boldly declared that the relationship between the two clubs was completely broken, labelling the situation as a result of systemic corruption. Perez has repeatedly made reference to the Negreira case, in which Barcelona were found to have sent payments to a CTA official, resulting in a long legal case. In response to those inflammatory remarks, Yuste had previously launched a fierce verbal counter-attack, insisting that the accusations were merely a smokescreen to distract from the capital club enduring a disastrous two years without major domestic silverware.

The tension between the fierce Clasico rivals has been building over recent days, culminating in this unprecedented official complaint. Prior to the formal letter, Yuste delivered a blistering public response to the allegations regarding refereeing bias.

He dismissed the accusations as a desperate distraction tactic following poor performances on the pitch. Standing firm on the matter, Yuste stated: "The words of Florentino seemed pathetic and full of falsehoods to me. The club already issued a statement yesterday studying legal action, but I want to say that this maneuver by Florentino Perez to cover up a sporting disaster that has been going on for two years will not get him anywhere."

All eyes are now on La Liga, the RFEF and the CTA to see how they will handle this explosive demand. If the governing bodies fail to sanction Perez, Barcelona have made it abundantly clear that they are prepared to pursue independent legal action to fiercely defend their reputation in court over the coming weeks.