Why Florentino Pérez has decided against going to the Clásico – report

Real Madrid will travel to Montjuic on Saturday afternoon to play Barcelona. The Clásico is widely considered as the biggest football game on the planet.

Barcelona go into the game just a point adrift of arch rivals Real.

Laporta’s charges

Outside of the sporting scene, there is a lot of tension in the build up to the game. Much of this comes from the fact that Barcelona president Joan Laporta has been charged by a judge for corruption.

This comes in connection with the Negreira case which has been in the news for several months.

According to reports, Joan Laporta has been accused of bribery by the judge in the ‘Negreira case’ and will be investigated.

Laporta calls for Florentino

Following the charges against him, the Barça president spoke to the media. In his words, he lamented: “It is improper for Madrid to present itself in the [Negreira] case. I would like Florentino to come to the Clásico.”

The ‘sociological madridismo’

Joan Laporta further went ahead to accuse Real following the charges against him. In an interview, Laporta said: “When you go to Madrid you realize that there is a ‘sociological madridismo’ in all the bodies of power. In my first stage we already beat this ‘sociological madridismo’. This ‘sociological madridismo’ did not have a good time and you can imagine how they feel when they see that Barça is doing better and on top of that the president of that stage is the same, that our coach was then the best midfielder in the world.”

“They see that great players from grassroots football are coming out again. In addition, they are not interested in talking about their power. They are the promoters of this plot. They want to take over the club and destroy one of the symbols of Catalonia. We will win the judicial procedure. I have bad news for sociological Real Madrid because we will make the best Barça in history again,” he added.

The president also said: “I have bad news for ‘sociological madridismo’. We will repeat the best Barça days in history. So be clear.”

The condemned tweet

During Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Braga at the Braga Municipal Stadium, Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior toyed with a Braga defender on the left wing during an attack.

Vinicius Junior did multiple step overs while on the ball.

This triggered Barcelona spokesman Mikel Camps to post a rather unfortunate and embarrassing tweet. The post read: “It’s not racism, he deserves a slap for being a clown. These stepovers are unnecessary and meaningless on a football pitch.”

Screenshot of the tweet posted by Mikel Camps

According to Jose Luis Sanchez of La Sexta, Florentino Pérez will not travel to Barcelona for the Clásico. What triggered him is the tweet by Miquel Camps.

Marca goes further to explain that Florentino had initially planned to travel to Montjuïc for the Clásico and be close to his players but he changed his decision because of the post on X by Miguel Camps. The specific reason is because of the silence from Barcelona and no apology. The only thing that was done was to delete the post as if nothing has happened.

So far, Barcelona have not received any official communication from Real Madrid or the club’s president on Florentino’s absence this weekend as reported by Diario Sport.