Real Madrid is holding elections this Sunday, April 28, for delegate members for the period from October 4, 2024 to October 4, 2028, voting that will take place at the Valdebebas Sports City. Those elected will be the ones who must approve the management of the club in the next four assemblies, which take place in the fall. During Florentino Pérez's mandate, everything proposed by the board of directors has always been approved with practically no opposition of any kind, with majorities of more than 95%.
The election of these assembly members has always been a controversial issue that rarely reaches the media. The voices opposing the current president have not been represented in the assembly for many years because the current system of election by thousands favors the most loyal representatives.
For this Sunday's election, nothing more than pure continuity is expected. As revealed by "El Confidencial", among the candidates on the 28th there are up to three members of the board, which could constitute an irregularity since they are going to the assembly due to their status as members of the Board; Among them is none other than the second vice president, Eduardo Fernández de Blas; in fact the first vice president because the person who held that position, Fernando Fernández Tapias, died on October 25, 2023.
Eduardo Fernández de Blas is Florentino Pérez's right-hand man since his re-election in 2009, the man who led the platform called Ética Madridista to oust Ramón Calderón from the presidential seat.
The other two members of the Board who are running for candidates are Manuel Torres Gómez and Nicolás Martín-Sanz García, a chemist who worked for the League and former president of Castilla who appeared on Juan Miguel Villar Mir's electoral list.
Also striking is the presence of up to nine area directors; that is, club employees with senior management positions. Among them is also Florentino Pérez's other strong man, the club's general director, José Ángel Sánchez (who is known as JAS), who arrived at the club as marketing director in 2000 and did not lose his position during Ramón's mandate. Calderon.
Among the candidates are also other employees of the house, such as the communications director Antonio Galeano (famous as Antonio García Ferreras's man); the head of operations, Fernando Tormo; that of infrastructure and heritage development, Francisco Panadero; that of the social area, José Luis Sánchez; that of the peñas department, Manuel Gómez Barrera; the women's sports director, Ana Rossell (former president of CD Tacón, a club that absorbed Real Madrid) and the everlasting director of the presidential office, Manuel Redondo.
Another employee is Carlos Ocaña Orbis, director of corporate projects. Ocaña, a graduate in Economics and an expert in technological consulting, is the co-author of the book by Pedro Sánchez in which a large part of the postdoctoral work that the President of the Government presented in November 2012 at the Camilo José Cela University is reproduced.
The fact that the delegates are related to the president is not exactly something new. For the last period, from 2220 to 2224, the three children of Florentino Pérez were elected: Florentino, Eduardo and María Ángeles Pérez Sandoval. So was the head of security, Julio Cendal (already retired), his son and the entire club department, with his director, Manuel Gómez Barrera at the head. So was Manuel Cobo, PP deputy and vice mayor of the city between 2003 and 2011. He is also a columnist for 'As' and a renowned Madrid fan.
