The speech by Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid, at the annual assembly of delegate members did not disappoint in terms of the expected criticism of the Spanish refereeing establishment, of Uefa for its opposition to the European Super League and of the League chaired by Javier Tebas. Also, and at the last moment, he spoke about the Negreira case and made reference to sociological Real Madrid: "The correct thing would be to talk about universal sociological Real Madrid because it exists. This is the only club in the world with more than 500 million on social networks. A gigantic legion of fans all over the planet, the result of our unwavering values thanks to people like Bernabéu, Gento or Di Stéfano. Based on work, effort and spirit there are already 14 European Cups. Yes, this is universal sociological Madridismo, a worthy phenomenon of study and very difficult to match. This is Real Madrid, the best club in history".
And he continued: "And a reflection on the Negreira case. It is in the hands of the judges and we must be respectful of the times and deadlines. But it is not normal that almost 8 million euros have been paid and that is why the club has acted as accusation. And we are admitted as an injured party. It is a case of enormous gravity. Enormous."
"The situation of Spanish football is even more worrying than that of European football managed by UEFA. I will not talk about the RFEF, which is going through a regeneration process that I trust will recover its prestige and reputation. There are issues as important as the quality of refereeing and the VAR. Nobody knows who draws the lines of the VAR or what frame is chosen for it. This is a constant and generates doubts about the arbitration. I trust that the Government will act to regenerate the structures of the arbitration system because the credibility of our competitions is very deteriorated," said Pérez as the room burst into applause.
The bulk of Florentino Pérez's batteries were dedicated to firing at UEFA: "Football is suffering an unprecedented institutional crisis. The situation is very serious. Either we react now or football will not survive. The main problem is that there are managers who act without thinking about the fans. European football does not belong to the president of UEFA nor Spanish football to that of LaLiga. The Super League is more necessary than ever," he assured.
For Pérez, "the objective of the Super League is to offer the best football and it is the clubs that have to control their destiny. And I demand more Financial Fair Play rules, which some clubs fail to comply with without any consequence. This situation is not stable, "It cannot be. They have come to assure that we want to leave the national leagues, it is false, because it would be totally compatible. It will be a meritocratic competition," he stated.
Pérez harshly criticized the new Champions League format that UEFA intends to implement next season: "The new UEFA format is an unusual and absurd project. This model will further alienate fans of our sport and especially the most young people. It is a system that serves the interests of its managers and the needs of players, fans and footballers are not taken into account. They are destroying European football, they are not innovating, they are not facing the threat of other growing sports and other leisure offers".
And Florentino Pérez continued: "Real Madrid has a responsibility with European football. For Madrid everything would be easier if we did not lead this project that is so uncomfortable, but dear partners, history demands it of us. We have the obligation to offer the fans the best possible spectacle. We also want to make access to televised football cheaper and they are offered an increasingly worse spectacle. It makes no sense to have to pay 10% of the minimum wage to have access to football. The Super League was conceived to solve all these problems. I continue to trust in the justice of the European Union because UEFA does not have the right to a monopoly on football in the Europe of freedoms."
The third leg of Péez's attacks was the League and Javier Tebas: "The latest actions of the league against Madrid are of such severity that they seek to attack the personal assets of the club. We are 100,000 members and we suffer. They have tried everything First, expropriate 11% of our audiovisual rights in 50 years and then, change the Sports Law to disqualify presidents... and it doesn't take much imagination to know who they wanted to put in. The National Court has already declared illegal these sanctions," he said.
Later, to applause, he stated: "With the CVC they sought to take away 11% of our audiovisual rights for half a century without us knowing. We found out through the press and because honest people informed us. This operation was a big deal for their manager and a disgrace for football. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic refused, we pointed out that this was illegal. And right there they reported changes... which are also illegal and we pointed it out."
And he concluded: "I am going to work in the coming months to devise a structure that protects and shields the economic assets, which belong to Real Madrid and each of the partners. That allows Madrid to defend us against threats of expropriation. We are going to design the mechanisms so that this club belongs to real members, not only from a romantic point of view. To endure hostile maneuvers."
