The dispute stems from a fiery press conference and subsequent interview in May, where Perez allegedly claimed that Barcelona had effectively “stolen” domestic titles from Real Madrid with the assistance of referees, News.Az reports, citing Barca Universal.
Barça’s legal team had been evaluating their options and confirmed they have filed a formal conciliation request—the mandatory first step in Spain before launching a full-scale criminal lawsuit for slander under Article 205 of the Penal Code.
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Barcelona’s leadership is demanding a full public retraction from Perez, stating his comments were made “knowing them to be false” and were deliberately designed to tarnish the club’s image and reputation.
Perez, who has historically doubled down on his criticism of Barcelona’s past referee payments, previously dared the Catalan giants to take action, stating, “Barça would do well to sue me.” Now that Barcelona has called his bluff, the ball is in the Real Madrid chief’s court to either retract his statements or prepare for a high-profile criminal complaint.
