“They stole 7 titles from us” — Clash of titans in Spain as Barcelona takes Florentino Pérez to court over accusations

The showdown between Barcelona and Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez now has a date.

The Catalan club and the “Los Blancos” chief have been summoned on November 25, at 09:40, to one of the courtrooms in Madrid, for the conciliation hearing.

This is the preliminary step before the filing of a criminal lawsuit against Florentino Pérez for an alleged defamation claim, in connection with his statements against Barcelona.

The Catalan club had filed the request for the conciliation hearing back in June, asking the Real Madrid president to retract his statements that Barcelona had “stolen seven championship titles.”

If Pérez does not retract these statements, Barcelona warns that it will proceed with a criminal complaint, arguing that the accusations damage the club’s image and reputation.

The case began after Florentino Pérez’s statements on May 12, when he announced the Madrid club’s elections, as well as during a later interview. On that occasion, the Real Madrid president declared that his team could have won more league titles and claimed that seven of them had been “stolen” from them, also referring to the Negreira case.

Pérez linked this issue to claims of payments made for years by Barcelona to the former Spanish refereeing official, José María Enríquez Negreira. He also declared that Real Madrid had prepared an extensive dossier aimed at presenting it to UEFA.

Barcelona considers the Real Madrid president’s statements serious and has demanded that he retract them during the conciliation hearing.

If Florentino Pérez does not appear at the hearing or does not accept Barcelona’s request, the Catalan club is expected to proceed with the procedures for filing the criminal lawsuit. If Barcelona were not to appear, the procedure would be considered withdrawn, while in the event of the absence of the party summoned for conciliation, the hearing would be considered attempted for legal effects.

Now November 25 is awaited, when Barcelona and Florentino Pérez will face each other in this hearing, which could also determine the further steps of the legal battle between the two parties.