Florentino Perez came out fighting over a number of issues at the Real Madrid General Assembly.
The legendary club president opened the ceremony at the Real Madrid City basketball pavilion in front of club members and began by paying tribute to the victims of Storm Dana, before announcing an extraordinary financial milestone.
The key talking points follow:
The first billion-euro football club: “Real Madrid is the first club to surpass 1 billion euros in revenue. It is an unprecedented milestone, competing with the biggest giants in the NFL and NBA. Although the Bernabéu has not been at full capacity, we should highlight the VIP areas and the museum, which have generated enormous profits. The stadium has an innovative vision that is already bearing fruit. “The most valuable club in the world according to Forbes and the most valuable football brand in the world according to Brand Finance.”
On the Ballon d’Or: “Rodri has all our affection and he deserved one. Let that be clear. But not this one. It should have been for a Real Madrid player, whatever criteria were applied. The clamour was for Vinicius, but it could have been for our captain, Carvajal. Or even Bellingham. It is very difficult to explain. But there are certain surprising things. The UEFA statement, for example. It points out that his entry had no impact on the voting system… Damn. Well, I will tell you: they have altered the voting system (from 5 players, they have gone to 10), as well as the number of points (from 6 to 15). And it is surprising that, with football being something so global, journalists from countries with as much population as India do not vote… and from others with less than a million, they do. And nobody knows them, either! Without Namibia, Uganda, Albania and Finland, Vinicius would have won the Ballon d’Or. And what’s more, these countries didn’t give any votes to Vinicius. Not one! The Finn, at least, has resigned. And he said he won’t be part of the jury again. Look, I appreciate that. We should ask the organisation what the criteria are, but it is clear that they can do whatever they want without any cost. I would ask France Football and L’Équipe if it makes much sense to join forces with UEFA right now. The Ballon d’Or should be an independent trophy and voted for by renowned people.”
On FIFA and UEFA: “FIFA has increased the number of stoppages and UEFA has created a Champions League that nobody understands, the matches of the tournaments it had, as well as launching a new tournament: the Club World Cup. Ten years ago it organised 488 matches and now, 760. And all to earn more. The players are not taken into account. They do not think that sport should be sustainable and they do not think about the footballers either. It is being harmful to professionals, increasing injuries. This season we could end up playing 82 matches! There are 63% more matches organised by UEFA and FIFA: it has gone from 22 to 36.”
On the Super League: “Do you know how many times an English team has visited our home in an official match? Two. We have played Manchester United only once in the last 16 years. In tennis there have been more than 100 Nadal-Federer matches. Football is on the wrong path. Netflix offered to sell its company to Blockbuster for 50 million, but Blockbuster refused. It failed to adapt to the new world and did not see the end of videotapes. And it ended up bankrupt. We do not want to be Blockbuster. Today I am more optimistic than ever. Breaking the monopoly of football has required a titanic effort, with pressures that would have brought down anyone, but not us. Real Madrid has once again honoured its history by fighting against UEFA and FIFA, in the same way that Santiago Bernabéu did. We can feel proud. Now it is up to us to put the court’s ruling into practice.
On Bernabeu struggles: “It is inconceivable that we have to learn in some toxic digital media outlets that the Bernabéu does not even have a licence to host football matches. The organisation of concerts is not a particularly lucrative activity for the club. We simply rent out the stadium and I would like you to know that the income from this would be around 1% of our annual budget.”
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