Madrid’s football rivalry is set to enter a courtroom rather than a stadium on 25 November, when Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez is due to attend a conciliation hearing requested by FC Barcelona over his public remarks about the Negreira case.
The hearing is scheduled for 9:40am in the courtroom of Madrid Courts 1 and 2. Barcelona initiated the procedure after judging that comments made by Pérez in May could amount to slander and damage the club’s institutional reputation.
The dispute centres on Pérez’s references to Barcelona’s long-running payments to companies connected to José María Enríquez Negreira, the former vice-president of Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees. Speaking publicly about the controversy, the Real Madrid president said Barcelona had benefited from refereeing structures and used language including “corruption” and claims about “enriching referees”.
Barcelona responded by seeking a formal withdrawal of specific statements. The Catalan club has indicated that, should no settlement be reached through the conciliation process, it may pursue a criminal complaint over alleged slander.
A wider case still before the courts
The Negreira investigation remains active in Spain. It concerns payments Barcelona made over several years to businesses linked to Negreira. Barcelona has maintained that the money covered technical reports and consultancy work on referees, while the judicial inquiry continues to examine the possible purpose of those arrangements.
Real Madrid is already an active party in that broader legal case. The new action brings the two clubs’ institutional conflict into a separate legal setting, with Pérez personally required to answer Barcelona’s challenge.
The November hearing will determine whether the country’s two biggest clubs can resolve the matter through conciliation or whether Barcelona takes the confrontation further through criminal proceedings. For now, another chapter of the Clásico has moved from the grounds of Madrid and Barcelona to the courts of the capital.
