Barcelona have announced that they are studying legal action following the press conference given by Real Madrid President Florentino Perez. He called elections at Real Madrid, but also announceed that Los Blancos were to submit a dossier on the Negreira case to UEFA, due to the lack of action by the authorities in Spain.
Currently Barcelona stand accused of sporting corruption in Spain, after the discovery of payments to former Vice-President of the Referees Committee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira over a period of 17 years. The payments amount to around €7-8m, but Barcelona have denied any wrongdoing. The case is currently in pre-trial process, collecting testimony, but Perez announced that Real Madrid would seek action from
“Three years ago we learned about the Negreira Case. The biggest scandal in history. They’ve been paying for two decades, but now it’s the same referees for this third decade. We will present a substantial dossier to UEFA so they can tackle this at its root and resolve the case for the good of world football.”
Negreira dossier will be 500 pages
Perez went on to refer to LaLiga as Real Madrid’s ‘perennial enemy’, before revealing the dossier UEFA would be receiving is 500 pages long.
“Of course, there’s also our perennial enemy, LaLiga. We’re going to fight. I’m fighting against all of them. The systemic corruption of the Negreira Case… How can we just forget it? We’re preparing a 500-page dossier that I’ll send to UEFA when the season is over. I’ve already spoken with them. There’s no precedent for this in the history of world football. It’s the biggest corruption case ever.”
Real Madrid have recently improved relations with UEFA after ending the Superleague.
“We won with the Super League at the CJEU, and now we’re negotiating with UEFA. We want free football, so that children in Africa can watch football for free, like they do with the Club World Cup. This isn’t just for Real Madrid, it’s for the good of football. UEFA has realised this and we’re making progress in a very positive way.”
‘Helping Barcelona’ was before Negreira case
Back in 2024, Real Madrid President Florentino Perez declared at the club’s General Assembly that clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid ‘have to help each other’. When asked about that comment, he incorrectly claimed that this was after the Negreira case revelations.
“That was long before the Negreira case. We only recently learned about it; we couldn’t have imagined that the head of the referees was distributing money from Barcelona for two decades. This issue has come to light late. Since then, we’ve been compiling a dossier and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. It’s the biggest corruption case in the history of football. For the good of football. Nobody in the world would even consider paying off referees. It’s inconceivable.”
“We’ve been left empty-handed, and I’ve been here I don’t know how many seasons and I’ve only won seven European Cups and seven league titles, which could have been 14 because they’ve been stolen from me. We’ve made a video about the 18 points they’ve taken from us this season. I can’t stay silent about that. I don’t want to be showered with praise all day, but this conspiracy between some people at SER, others at COPE… No, that’s not enough.”
Perez noted that he had the backing of the Real Madrid members in their battle against the Negreira ‘and others’, although he did not specify who he was referring to.
“The Real Madrid members are with me in my fight against Negreira and the others. It’s not always Real Madrid that suffers; other teams do too. Barça always benefits. UEFA will get involved in this matter, they will. It’s unacceptable that they’re under suspicion of corruption paid for over 20 years. We’ll see what happens in both the criminal and sporting aspects with UEFA. And we’ll see what happens. UEFA has agreed for us to send the entire dossier. I didn’t come here to let the referees get rich off Barcelona’s money. I came here to fight.”
No World Cup for Roony Bardghji. ❌
The winger has not been called up by Sweden for the tournament starting in June. pic.twitter.com/MgcyBIKscV
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) May 12, 2026
Barcelona announce potential legal action
In a statement released shortly after Perez’s press conference, Barcelona announced that their legal department were studying legal action following his statements and accusations. Throughout the Negreira case, Barcelona have maintained that their payments were for consultancy and scouting reports on refereees.
