Florentino Pérez embraced Raúl González. The former Real Madrid captain said something in Pérez’s ear, which made Pérez playfully slap across Raúl’s face. The pair hugged again before Raúl walked away to let Pérez enjoy the presentation ceremony of the UEFA Champions League 2021/22 final at the Stade de France.
As Real Madrid players came up one after the other at the ceremony to receive their winner’s medal after beating Liverpool 1-0 on the night, each stopped at Pérez before moving on to accept the commendations of other dignitaries.
Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Fede Valverde, Eduardo Camavinga, Vinicius Júnior… Pérez embraced all of them, giving a peck on the cheek to some, joking with some, whispering conspiratorially into the ears of some others.
Around a year ago, the sight of Pérez embracing Real’s players in the Champions League final would have raised eyebrows.
There are two reasons for this:
- The fact that Real were playing the Champions League at all and
- Media reports published shortly before the 2021-22 season began quoting Pérez calling players in general “very selfish” and that “you can never count on them for anything.”
Let’s look at number 2 first.
EMBARASSING REVELATIONS
“I have a horrible view of players,” Pérez reportedly said, in comments published in July 2021 by El Confidencial, a Spanish digital newspaper. Pérez reportedly made the comments in September 2006, after he had resigned as Real Madrid president and had been succeeded in the post by Ramon Calderon.
If Pérez’s comments on players in general were embarrassing for him, his reported comments on Raúl, a former Madrid captain and a club legend, were far more severe.
“The two great Real Madrid frauds are Raúl first and (Iker) Casillas second,” he allegedly said.
“Raul is bad, he believes that Madrid is his and uses everything that is in Madrid for his own benefit. He is a negative figure, he is destroying Madrid and the morale of the players so that they say: ‘It is Madrid that is bad, not Raul.’ It is terrible how bad the boy is.”
Responding to El Confidencial’s story, the Real president said he had been targeted for championing the European Super League earlier in 2021. “I understand that the fact that they have been published now, so many years on from the time the conversations took place, owes to my involvement as one of the driving forces behind the Super League,” Pérez said in a statement. “I have placed the matter in the hands of my lawyers, who are examining the course of action to be taken.”
Pérez said the comments are “isolated quotes that were part of conversations and have been taken out of the wider context in which they were made.”
When Pérez’s comments were published, Raúl was the manager of Real Madrid Castilla, the Spanish giants’ reserve team. One year on, he has not responded – at least in public – to Pérez’s remarks and he’s still manager of Real’s B team. It is widely known that Raúl is being groomed to take over as Real Madrid manager one day, like Zinedine Zidane before him.
“We needed more experience (when Carlo Ancelotti succeeded Zidane as Madrid manager) and Raúl is taking it year to year. One day it will happen — he has all the qualities you need to have to coach Real Madrid,” said Pérez last year.
“One day it will happen”.
THE ART OF WAITING
Florentino Pérez knows how to wait. He has enjoyed the success he has had as Real Madrid president because he knows how to wait.
In 1995, Pérez contested for the vacant presidential position at Real Madrid against Ramón Mendoza. He lost by 699 votes.
Pérez bided his time and in 2000, he tried again. He took on incumbent Lorenzo Sanz, who was widely expected to win the elections after leading Real to 2 Champions League triumphs in his term between 1995 and 2000. Pérez, however, promised to sign Barcelona icon Luis Figo if he was elected, which sealed the polls in his favour.
In 2006, Pérez was forced to resign as Real Madrid president after his much-vaunted ‘Galacticos’ policy failed and Madrid went three seasons without winning a trophy. “I believe we need a change of direction,” Pérez said announcing his departure.
For three years, Pérez waited. Again. In 2009, with a presidential election looming after Real president Ramón Calderón was forced to resign over a vote-rigging scandal, Pérez announced his candidacy.
“We are working towards and we will work to create a spectacular project, and that is to make Real Madrid the best club in the world once more,” Pérez said. He won the election unopposed.
PRESIDENT FOR LIFE?
Thirteen years later, Pérez is in his fifth term as president, set to remain in place at least till 2025. He has won every election he has faced since 2004 – when Lorenzo Sanz tried to wrest back the presidency from Pérez – unopposed.
This is partly due to the bank guarantees that Real Madrid presidential candidates are expected to furnish – as well as changes to the club statutes that Pérez has engineered that make any opposition to him nigh-on impossible.
Pérez has changed the club’s statutes that now state all candidates for the presidential election must have been Real socios – or members – for at least 20 years, from an earlier 10 years.
For example, Pérez has changed the club’s statutes that now state all candidates for the presidential election must have been Real socios – or members – for at least 20 years, from an earlier 10 years. They should also have a personal guarantee of over €75 million from a Spanish bank.
Pérez defended the changes in 2015, saying, “Two years ago, someone here appealed changes that were made to two important points of the statutes, so that a foreign businessman could not come to take charge of the club.”
Pérez maintained the statutes had been changed to protect the club. “For me, members of the Board of Directors are members are the members of the Board of Directors, and we should not have a member taking someone from outside that backs them and aims to make them part of the life of Real Madrid through a confused interpretation of the statutes, and that is why we clarified it.”
Regardless of his true intentions, at 75 years old, and in his 19th year as president, Pérez looks set to remain in office without any credible challenger till the end of his natural life.
EMULATING A GIANT
While Pérez might find it hard to match Santiago Bernabéu, the mythical former Real Madrid president in terms of longevity in office – Bernabéu was at the helm for 35 years – the real estate magnate did draw level with Bernabéu on an important metric with victory over Liverpool in Paris.
Real have now won 6 Champions League trophies under Pérez’s presidency, the same number of European Cups the Merengues won under Bernabéu.
“I think he’ll be considered as the new Bernabéu,” said Real Madrid legend Amancio, who played under Bernabéu’s presidency in the 1960s and 1970s. “(Bernabéu) was an impressive president that put Real Madrid in a very high position and Florentino Pérez is doing the same thing at the moment,” Amancio told Radio MARCA in 2021.
PEREZ’S MOONSHOT
Throughout his presidency, Pérez has spoken about his desire to bring the greatest players in the world to the “greatest club in the world”.
One more key aspect to help Real achieve that position, in the club president’s view, is to revamp the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
In September 2018, Real Madrid socios approved Pérez’s plan to borrow up to 575 million euros for an upgrade of the stadium. The work, which will see the stadium get a retractable roof, more restaurants, a shopping centre and a hotel, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
“It’ll be the best stadium in the world in which to see us once again recognised at the end of the century as the best club of the 21st century,” said Pérez about the renovation. FIFA had named Real Madrid as the ‘Club of The Century’ in December 2000 following a vote that was restricted to subscribers of the bi-monthly FIFA World Magazine (FIFA’s official magazine).
The revamped Bernabéu “will offer a new stadium, heritage and be a new source of pride for our members and fans,” said Pérez about the project.
Pérez’s comments, if one looks closely, echo something he said in the past about Santiago Bernabéu himself.
“Bernabeu created this Real Madrid, which is magic,” said Pérez at the premiere of a documentary on Santiago Bernabéu in 2017.
“You have to see it to see how he managed Real Madrid before the war, during it and after it,” wrote the Spanish newspaper Marca.
“He had this idea that if the club had the largest stadium in the world then it would have the largest revenue and that’s what he made happen.”
Thinking back to Pérez’s comments on his vision for Real Madrid, the parallels with Bernabéu are plain to see.
THE SUPER LEAGUE DEBACLE
Now let’s look at the first reason Perez embracing Real players in the Champions League final in Paris was such an improbable sight.
In April 2021, twelve major European clubs announced the formation of a midweek European Super League (ESL) that would see 20 clubs, divided into 2 groups with 10 teams each, play each other on a home and away basis. The Super League would have 15 permanent members who would never face relegation and 5 non-permanent members who would qualify each year.
Florentino Pérez was one of the driving forces of the ESL and named as its chairman. However, a firestorm of fan protest, players’ pushback, warnings from UEFA and FIFA of possible sanctions and lacerating media coverage saw the project collapse in days. All but 9 of the 12 teams that founded the ESL abandoned the project. However, Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona remained committed to the cause, refusing to turn their backs on the idea.
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin had warned that the defiant trio risked being expelled from the Champions League.
However, a court in Madrid had blocked UEFA’s efforts to discipline the 3 clubs – giving a reprieve to the 3 clubs. In April this year, UEFA got a shot in the arm when a new judge sitting on the case dropped the restrictive action on UEFA. Spanish newspaper Marca reported that the judge ruled that the Superleague could infringe on the equality and fairness of competition.
As late as in May 2022, Čeferin said UEFA could exclude Real, Barca and Juve from UEFA competition. In an interview with French daily L’Equipe, he said, “It is possible to punish any club… Some doubt it. They are wrong. The rules are the same for everyone.”
“Of course it is possible (to exclude the 3 clubs from UEFA competitions). But it is the (decision of the) UEFA Disciplinary Committee, which is independent,” he said.
STICKING TO HIS GUNS
All through the ESL controversy, Pérez had maintained that Real Madrid could not be banned from the Champions League by UEFA.
“Every player can be calm because that’s not going to happen. They won’t be banned if they join the Super League,” Pérez said in an interview on Spanish television program El Chiringuito in April 2021.
“Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea will not be banned from the Champions League or domestic leagues. Impossible, I can assure you of that. 100 per cent, it won’t happen, the law protects us. This is impossible.”
With the legal backing that had saved Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona from UEFA action now gone, Perez has reason to be concerned. If UEFA ban the trio from their competitions, Real Madrid won’t be able to defend their title in next season’s Champions League campaign. Nobody knows what will happen in the courtrooms. So everyone concerned has no choice but to wait. Florentino Pérez knows how to wait.