13 May 2026 12:02 BST |
4 min read
As if the incessant bullshit at Real Madrid in the last few months wasn’t crazy enough, on Tuesday night president Florentino Perez provided the definitive ‘hold my beer’ moment and sent the standing of not only himself, but Los Blancos, back to the stone age.
A hastily-announced press conference. Was it Jose Mourinho coming back? Was it Kylian Mbappe? Something else? It was something else, alright, a press conference that will go down in infamy and, hopefully, in disgrace for a man that appeared so disconnected from reality, Donald Trump is cogent in comparison.
Madrid have, rightly, been under the cosh from all sides in the past few months for a whole manner of reasons and Perez, himself, has stayed largely silent. Not so any longer.
He came out of the blocks, firstly clarifying a few things. He would never resign; “they would have to shoot me,” and issued an open challenge to his detractors, stating that he plans to call elections early if a combatant were to emerge. He didn’t mention that as part of Real Madrid’s election process any potential incumbent must be able to provide guarantees for a minimum of 15% of club revenue, which based on last season would amount to more than €180m. That fact somewhat thins the herd meaning any challenge is hugely unlikely. “There are some kids that want to run [against me]. Well, let them run.” Again, this isn’t happening.
Then he got onto the referees. He flew head-on into the Negreira case, referring to alleged payments of €8.4m to the then-head of La Liga’s technical committee of referees. He claimed that instead of seven Liga titles he should actually have 14, and that he has been robbed of the remaining number. He then cited a 500-page dossier that will be handed to UEFA that will ‘prove’ La Liga’s corruption.
He went on like this, without stopping, without flinching, unhinged and without precedent. “18 points we have been robbed of this season, we showed the evidence on Real Madrid TV,” he presented to the waiting journalists.
And those journalists were next, the irony lost on him that this quickly assembled cabal was doing his bidding to go forth and spread this completely bonkers diatribe. He aimed his crosshairs specifically at ABC newspaper: “their sole aim is to attack Real Madrid and its president. And I’m sorry, because my father read ABC and subscribed me many years ago, but now I’ve decided to cancel my ABC subscription to honor my father.”
He then took particular exception to a female journalist, Mariajo Funtealamo, saying, “Look at the two articles they’ve written today, a woman who I don’t know whether she knows anything about football.”
Then, upon taking questions, he paused to call the room “really ugly” before allowing another female journalist to ask him a question. There were many more moments where a total absence of control was present and this is perhaps the most alarming thing about it; a 79-year-old billionaire trying to flex his muscle and prove he’s ready to outlast everyone, but look completely ridiculous, out-of-touch and of diminishing relevance in the process. It also did little to absolve him from the role of ‘dictator’ that his opponents have tagged him with. That this nonsense was even allowed to take place, further still.
But whether or not it’s actually feasible to see Perez unseated from the club he has controlled for most of the 21st century, this is simply another stain on an institution which has been made to look incompetent in every facet of the organisation. From the player’s abject treatment of Xabi Alonso (and, indeed, his successor Alvaro Arbeloa), to the arch primadonna status of Kylian Mbappe, the petulance of Vinicius Jr and the outright aggression of Fede Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni. The inept medical department. The fan treatment on social media of Thiago Pitarch. The weird, time-capsule pursuit of Mourinho.
It’s all chaos, lots of it, and it’s happening at the end of a trophyless season. That Real Madrid haven’t won La Liga in back-to-back seasons in 20 years – Barcelona have done it four times in that period – bubbled under Perez’s collar. He made Trumpian claims that he – the emphasis on him – has won 66 titles (he included the club’s basketball titles in this number) and therefore the inference he was deserving of more respect.
But like Mbappe is also finding out, respect is earned via the actions of the man as well as the achievements in life. That Perez felt the need to be so one-note against the same faction of enemies, so conspiratorial, so filled with disdain, represented a shift of Real Madrid from a respected institution to that of the gutter politics which now surrounds us. Perez has lifted Madrid, but he’s also taking them back down with him. It was all so needless, yet this might be the part people remember the most.
Related stories:
Jose Mourinho closing in on Real Madrid return: ‘He’s already in the dressing room’
Real Madrid’s 10 biggest transfer sale mistakes
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