Florentino Perez exposed

Dear friend,

I welcome your criticism, just as I welcome your loyalty as a reader. Since my understanding is that we are brought closer by our goodwill towards Real Madrid, I feel it is both fair and necessary to explain to you my view of Florentino Pérez, one about which I understand your concern.

When Florentino came in in 2000, I had considerable faith in him, despite already having cause for suspicion about his arrival. He won because of what he, inaccurately, called the postal vote. In truth, it was through votes which he and his team had 'collected'. He looked into the companies in whose management he had friends; the trade unions, too. UGT, CCOO. At El Corte Inglés and other big companies, too. Through the capo you got to the boss’s boss, then the next one, and at last the top chief. And finally the worker was told:

“If you wouldn’t mind giving me your vote in favour of Florentino Pérez.”

That was accompanied by a barrage of attacks against previous incumbent Lorenzo Sanz, whose unusual style of managing the club was sharply emphasised. He had just won two European Cups after a 32-year drought, but his management was ridiculed. What was particularly brought to light was a sum of money which, it was denounced, was for a game of parchís [a popular board game in Spain, similar to Ludo]. As he later explained, it was really for third-party bonuses at the time of a match which meant possible promotion for Castilla.

But Florentino shook up those dice good and proper:

“When I arrive, I’m going to request a management audit.”

He arrived, but there was no management audit. There was a new wave of optimism, though, with Luis Figo, then Zinedine Zidane, then Ronaldo.

When Florentino arrived, Madrid had won two of the past three Champions Leagues. That, as far as I understand, contributed to Real being chosen as 'FIFA Club of the 20th Century'. It surprises me greatly when I hear it said that Florentino saved Madrid from disappearing, given that almost in the same instant as his arrival, the club was considered the best of the century then ending.

What he certainly did get right was turning the old training complex into a fortune. His political contacts (together with the added plus that Real Madrid itself brings) made that possible. The old training complex was turned into a newer one (though without a basketball court; that has been lost) and four skyscrapers, each of which paid for the signings of Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and finally David Beckham.

Just as Beckham was about to arrive, Florentino decided to get rid of Vicente del Bosque. He had just won La Liga, but was also just at the end of his contract. In three and a half years he had won the Champions League twice and La Liga twice. But he didn't fit in with the razzmatazz atmosphere.

He was replaced by Carlos Queiroz, who was more sharply turned out and, according to some, spoke several languages very well (they included Spanish among them, so I’m not so sure…). That ended in five consecutive defeats and a tumble that took in José Antonio Camacho, Mariano García Remón, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Juan Ramón López Caro… until Florentino’s abrupt resignation after a Madrid loss away at Mallorca.

He sprinted out of the door. Madrid then had a dizzying succession of presidents, whom he sought to supervise. Fernando Martín, Luis Gómez-Montejano and Ramón Calderón, all within a few weeks.

Calderón squeezed in as president after elections in which Florentino had supported Juan Miguel Villar Mir. Calderón got the postal vote annulled, viewing it as votes that had been collected, and probably falsified. His view was supported in court. But, given the precarious nature of his majority, and the manner in which he had earned it, he was advised (and I certainly agreed with the advice) that he should call new elections. He didn’t. Faced with endless suspicion and insinuations that made the club unmanageable, the entirety of his tenure was an uphill battle.

Despite all that, he won two La Ligas in two and a bit years. Real Madrid inherited a squad in disastrous shape, which had to be trimmed of Diogo, Cicinho, Pavón, Mejía, Woodgate, Raúl Bravo, Pablo García, Gravesen, Baptista, Cassano, Robinho… And two ‘galácticos’ past their sell-by date: Ronaldo and Beckham. Zidane had already announced that he was leaving. That was what Calderón inherited from Florentino’s first spell in charge.

Finally, five years ago, it was revealed that a dozen individuals had been infiltrated into the members’ assembly under Calderón. That finished him off. It still hasn’t been established exactly who got them in. Either way, the circumstances got the better of him and he left. Each and every one of his directors stayed at the club, with vice-president Vicente Boluda taking charge. Five years on, Calderón has not lost a single court case, as far as you and I know. Two El Mundo journalists found guilty of libel against him, called Carlos Carbajosa and Jesús Alcaide, were later hired by Madrid on good salaries and in positions for which they lacked previous experience. One works as an intermediary between the press and the squad, and the other as director of the club’s television channel. That’s the way things are. Meanwhile, the president of Real Madrid’s peña (fan club) in Ponferrada is accused of falsifying postal votes in favour of Villar Mir and will go on trial in the coming months. Again, that’s the way things are.

Come the summer, Florentino returned to the presidency unopposed. The day he was declared president, he made the whole of Calderón’s board join him on stage for the official photo. Cristiano Ronaldo's signing had already been sealed under Calderón, for 96 million euros. Florentino tried to bring the fee down, making plenty of noise about the Portuguese not being worth that much, about it being crazy money… But in the end he signed on the dotted line, just as he would with Kaká and Benzema.

“We have to do in a year what hasn’t been done in three,” he said. He already had three ‘galácticos’.

What came next should be fresh in the memory. He began with Valdano and Manuel Pellegrini, selling Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben against the Chilean’s wishes (and with Valdano a bystander). The first season ended badly and so he brought in Mourinho, in the face of whom Valdano was submissive to an indescribable degree. Matters led to the fairly infamous point at which Mourinho refused to allow Valdano – in theory his immediate superior – to travel on the same plane or even set foot in Valdebebas. Florentino did not stop Mourinho. Valdano ended up departing, firing the following parting shot:

“I’m in the same place I was before. It was the club that moved.”

(It left me thinking that Del Bosque could have said the same all those years ago, but he had the good taste not to.)

Mourinho was at the club for three years. He won La Liga and the Copa del Rey (and the Supercopa de España) once each. All in all, I think that isn’t a great deal for the price that was paid. He left behind a level of division that you and I know about only too well. The finger in Tito Vilanova’s eye (‘Your finger points the way’, you remember the banner), the plaque given to him by the Ultras Sur, the speculation over Iker Casillas…

Now Carlo Ancelotti has come in as coach. I don’t know what will come of it. Without Del Bosque, Florentino’s presidency has brought one La Liga title in seven seasons. And one Copa. And two Supercopas. In seven seasons. A balance sheet in keeping with good times at a club like Deportivo La Coruña, for instance.

He tends to repeat that when Mourinho arrived at Real Madrid, the club hadn’t progressed past the last 16 in Europe for six years, but three of those seasons were under him. He tends to repeat that he took on the ‘best Barça in history’. But it was a historic team whose first stones he helped to lay by selling Samuel Eto’o, who fired the Blaugrana to two Champions Leagues, with a goal in each final. Eto’o, that young lad from Cameroon signed by Lorenzo Sanz...

He talks about a sporting and economic project. OK, well I believed him, just as you did. Only that Madrid are again in debt to the tune of 540 million, much more than they have ever owed, and have won one La Liga from the last seven... with him in charge. That’s the way things are.

In your letter, you make mention of the directors’ box. He is filling it up with more and more people. Financial journalists, panellists, media chiefs, politicians. Is that necessary for Madrid? Or is it necessary for ACS and for him?

A top-level season ticket at the Bernabéu costs 250,000 euros. One in the directors’ box, with all the prawn sandwiches you can eat, could be valued at 300,000. A nice little bonus every year, having it at your disposal to go whenever you want, don’t you think? It facilitates impunity, both for him and for ACS. Little has come out about ACS being behind the blasts in Tarragona, but it was the parent company of that which was running the gas pipelines there. There are a lot of people in there engaged in mutual back-slapping. They indulge each other, listen to jokes at the coach’s expense and share the triumphant atmosphere of those who don’t suffer from the crisis, but rather cause it. There are so many of them that the directors’ box has tripled since Florentino arrived, and has been extended, by metastasis, to those bluish boxes. They’re the little covered boxes in front. You will be able to see them on television.

Florentino’s Real Madrid certainly enjoy huge revenues, from three sources:

The first is the stadium, which Ramón Mendoza doubled in size by constructing the third and fourth tiers on top of the first and second, which were inherited from Santiago Bernabéu.

The second is marketing, and on this point I’d like to pause for a moment. Mendoza carried out the significant reconstruction of the stadium with the income he obtained by selling the club’s commercial rights to Dorna; those rights were then purchased by PRISA (Gestsport), before being bought back by Lorenzo Sanz. That move explains both the debt that Sanz left behind (and which Florentino exploited as electoral propaganda) and the fact that these rights have since been effectively capitalised upon. I think you’ll agree with me that it isn’t fair to paint this as a miracle now and make Sanz’s debt out to be the product of wastefulness.

The third is the television rights: Calderón took the giant leap forwards when he signed with Mediapro for a sum equivalent to that paid to Barça, despite the ‘Castilian’ bonds that tied the club to PRISA (my company) and Telemadrid. Years later, Florentino’s Madrid remain a part of the Mediapro constellation. On the course charted by Calderón.

So, my friend, I thank you for the years that you have bought AS. For me it would be an easy existence to go and take part in the back-slapping of the directors’ box each game. (I am always invited, by the way.) But I wouldn’t feel right.

I appreciate your interest. I began going to Madrid regularly in the 1962-63 season, when the forward line was Amancio, Félix Ruiz, Di Stéfano, Puskas and Gento. I’ve always felt great affection for Madrid.

It upsets me that there is such a widespread belief that Madrid were successful because of advantageous treatment from the Franco regime. In my book Nacidos para incordiarse, which deals with the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona, you’ll be able to find an accurate view on the matter.

But it likewise upsets me seeing Madrid confused and tangled up in power games, lacking in style, or anything except for money, and transformed into the paradigm of the worst vices of a period in history that will pass, leaving behind nothing more than individuals such as this one, in whom you still believe and in whom I stopped believing some time ago.

Many thanks for your letter.

Best wishes,

the xcx wrote:What a load of BS.

vanDEEZ wrote:Perez might not be the best, but when you compare him to the piles of absolute sh*t presidents the past couple decades, his second term isn't that bad.

And I could care less about the trophies, we all know why Madrid haven't won as many trophies as 'generally' expected in this term- because they constantly have to go up against Barca ultimately when it matters, or Bayern that one semi final.

Ya, Perez doesn't exactly have the 'vision' to build a long term successful and stylistic football club, but every choice he has made has (for the most part) been a reaction to what the fans want and at the time were logical, and then he gets blasted because people have severe hindsight bias.

Le Samourai wrote:Anyway, I think he's an asset, perhaps miscast, but still doing a better job than Calderon.

windkick wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:Perez might not be the best, but when you compare him to the piles of absolute sh*t presidents the past couple decades, his second term isn't that bad.

And I could care less about the trophies, we all know why Madrid haven't won as many trophies as 'generally' expected in this term- because they constantly have to go up against Barca ultimately when it matters, or Bayern that one semi final.

Ya, Perez doesn't exactly have the 'vision' to build a long term successful and stylistic football club, but every choice he has made has (for the most part) been a reaction to what the fans want and at the time were logical, and then he gets blasted because people have severe hindsight bias.

He is picking stars/money over everything. Its a perfect model, cause the casual fan will always want to root for the team with all the stars, and they will support it blindly just cause. Thats his model, to generate cash for the club, and its working. It's pretty easy to see through his bullshit, I just try and stay out of these topics because I'm obviously a cule and I'll always come off as a "hater".

So I take my leave

Le Samourai wrote:I think it's what draws fans on the periphery, which is what affects the bottom line.

Reacting to what the fans want is not exactly the way he should go about his job, regardless. Fans in itself is an ambiguous term, there is no consensus there, I think every person in this thread has a distinct opinion about what this team should and that diversity of opinion is certainly reflected in reality.

Anyway, I think he's an asset, perhaps miscast, but still doing a better job than Calderon.