WAR OF WORDS! Barcelona summon Florentino Perez to court over 'stolen titles' and Negreira defamation claims

The institutional relationship between Spain's two biggest clubs has hit a new low after a Madrid court scheduled a conciliation hearing between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. The meeting is set to take place on November 25 in the Madrid courts, marking a significant step in the defamation case brought forward by the Blaugrana. Barcelona are demanding a formal retraction from Perez regarding comments he made during a press conference in May, where he launched a stinging attack on the club's integrity in relation to the ongoing Negreira investigation.

Barcelona will press criminal charges for slander if Perez misses the hearing or refuses to retract his Negreira claims, pushing board-level tension between the two rivals to its highest point in decades.

At the heart of the dispute are Perez's extraordinary claims regarding the 'systemic corruption' he believes has defined Spanish football for the last two decades. The Real Madrid president pulled no punches when taking aim at the Negreira affair, declaring: 'The corruption in the Negreira case is systemic. It is the greatest scandal in history. To have to hear the CTA president say these things should be forgotten... how can they be forgotten? Madrid members are with me in my war against Negreira. Real Madrid isn't the only victim - other teams suffer too, while Barca is always the beneficiary.'

Taking his offensive a step further, Perez revealed that Real Madrid is taking concrete legal action to involve European football's governing body. 'We are preparing a 500-page dossier to send to UEFA, and I have already spoken with them,' the Real president warned. 'There is no precedent for this in world football. Let's see if UEFA finally steps in - they cannot allow European football to remain under the shadow of corruption that was paid for over 20 years.'

However, Perez did not stop at general allegations of corruption, escalating his attack by suggesting that Real Madrid had been systematically deprived of domestic trophies. The Real Madrid president directly linked the Negreira payments to lost titles on the pitch, boldly remarking: 'I have been here for I don't know how many seasons and I have only won seven Champions Leagues and seven Leagues, which could be 14 because 7 Leagues have been stolen from me.'

This explosive claim proved to be the breaking point for the Camp Nou hierarchy. Viewing Perez's words as an unequivocal accusation of theft and fraud, Barcelona moved swiftly to seek judicial intervention to defend their sporting integrity, historical record, and honours in court.

Barcelona vice-president Rafael Yuste condemned Perez's remarks as a ploy to destabilise the team, stating: 'He has resorted to infamy to destabilise us. We will meet in court. The name of Barca, this crest, is not dirtied by anyone. We will take care of it ourselves. We will go after them because we have everything to win. It was pathetic.'

The club followed through in June, issuing an official statement: 'Barcelona informs that today the mandatory conciliation claim prior to the filing of a complaint for a crime of slander under Article 205 of the Penal Code has been presented against the President of Real Madrid, Mr. Florentino Perez... The objective of this lawsuit is for Mr. Perez to retract certain manifestations that he made with knowledge of their falsehood... In the event that this demand is not duly addressed, FC Barcelona will proceed with the presentation of the corresponding criminal complaint.'