Pérez has refused to attend any match at Barcelona's stadium since March 2023, when he declined for the first time in over 20 years to sit in the directors' box at Camp Nou — a decision directly connected to the Negreira case, in which Real Madrid joined the investigation as a private prosecutor.
The breakdown in pre-match protocol dates to the same moment. Barcelona suspended the customary pre-Clásico lunch in 2023 after Madrid's legal involvement in the referee payments affair, viewing it as an act of institutional aggression. Since then, formal meetings between the two boards have been cancelled or reduced to brief, informal exchanges at best.
Earlier this season, when the first La Liga Clásico took place at the Santiago Bernabéu, there was no official directors' lunch. The 4pm kick-off time provided a logistical justification, though representatives from both clubs did exchange brief words before the match. Real Madrid won that fixture 2-1.
The sole exception to the pattern has been international neutral ground. Both clubs' officials met informally at the Spanish embassy in Riyadh during the Spanish Super Cup in January — a competition Barcelona won after beating Real Madrid 3-2 in the final.
Newly re-elected Barcelona president Joan Laporta, speaking in January before that Supercopa final, had set the tone plainly.
"Relations with Real Madrid are broken because there are various issues that have distanced us."
Pérez's refusal to attend Sunday's fixture is consistent with the position he has held since 2023. Should Barcelona clinch the title in front of their rivals at Camp Nou — something that has never happened in the competition's history — the absence of Real Madrid's president from the celebrations would be a pointed coda to a season in which the institutional distance between the two clubs has never been wider.