Spanish club FC Barcelona have officially announced that they have taken the first steps towards filing a lawsuit against Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

 

This comes after the Los Blancos’ chief’s derogatory comments directed at Barça, wherein he claimed that the Catalans had ‘stolen’ titles from the Spanish capital club with help from referees, pointing fingers at the Negreira case.

 

According to the club’s statement, Barcelona accuses Pérez of defamation and, in accordance with Article 205 of the Spanish Penal Code, has submitted a mandatory request for reconciliation due to statements he made during a press conference on May 12 and in a media interview the following day.

 

Barcelona asserts that they have no intention of causing Pérez any harm, but they are demanding justice and insist that Pérez withdraw his false accusations against the Catalan club.

 

The official statement from Barcelona read as follows:

 

“FC Barcelona reports that today it has filed the required conciliation request prior to filing a lawsuit for the crime of slander under Article 205 of the Penal Code against the President of Real Madrid, Mr. Florentino Perez, as a result of the statements made by him at the press conference on May 12 and in an interview with a media outlet the following day.

 

“The objective of this lawsuit is for Mr. Perez to retract certain statements he made knowing them to be false, statements that are slanderous and offensive to the image and reputation of the Club.

 

“Should this demand not be properly addressed, FC Barcelona will proceed to file the corresponding criminal complaint.”

 

“The objective of this lawsuit is for Mr. Perez to retract certain statements he made knowing them to be false, statements that are slanderous and offensive to the image and reputation of the Club.

 

“Should this demand not be properly addressed, FC Barcelona will proceed to file the corresponding criminal complaint.”

 

Perez had downplayed the threat of legal action from Barcelona in the past and had doubled down on his criticism on the Blaugrana concerning the Negreira case.

 

“Barça would do well to sue me. If they think they should, let them do it,” Perez had said.