"Florentino will die killing Spanish football"

BarcelonaDue to his age (he will turn 80 in five months), it escapes no one that the very long adventure of Florentino Pérez as president of Real Madrid is closer to the end than to the beginning. However, the powerful Madrid businessman renewed his status as the white leader last June in the first elections the club had held since 2006. He defeated the young Enrique Riquelme at the polls, who garnered 35% of the support despite being quite unknown to the general public, and secured four more years of government that will be stormy if the ball continues not to go in.

The prelude to those elections was a press conference called by surprise in the middle of May, with the sporting season still not over. Very little of a fan of microphones, Florentino Pérez decided to appear without any filter. He fired at the media, with special animosity towards the newspaper Abc, and presented himself as the only person capable of defending the interests of the merengue members. "They will have to kick me out by gunfire," summarized Pérez, who defined himself as "the best president in the history of Madrid".

In that appearance, the leader showed off a biting wit, but at the same time offered an incoherent speech and uttered sexist comments. Afterwards, he won the elections and since then has not returned to the public stage to speak spontaneously. For example, in Ceuta, where he traveled in the middle of the controversy over the shirts in Elche, he limited himself to reading from a script. On the other hand, he did not even open the doors to the press to present his new (and old) bet on José Mourinho, to stage the millionaire contract renewal of Vinícius Júnior —whom the Bernabéu has not stopped whistling at— or to exhibit such lavish acquisitions as that of Yan Diomande, which has cost 120 million euros plus variables.

In the first months of the current mandate, Florentino has taken refuge in official media and has lavished more than ever on the publication of institutional statements that demonstrate that he has not digested the failure of two projects he had in mind very well. On one hand, the concerts at the new Bernabéu, struck down in court by the residents of one of the most powerful districts in the Spanish capital. And, on the other, the Super League, a botched revolution of European football in which he has been left totally alone.

Kike Marín, a journalist for El Confidencial specializing in Madrid's front-office news, states to ARA that the Super League is the real origin of Florentino's siege on Barça regarding the Negreira case. "He does not forgive Joan Laporta for having gone from supporting him with the project to embracing Javier Tebas's La Liga, which has been his enemy for a long time," he asserts. Along the same lines, a person who has dealt with all levels of football in recent years expresses: "Florentino has started living day-to-day and will die killing Spanish football".

Delving into the statement, the same source holds the theory that the Madrid president wants Barça to pay the consequences of an alleged favorable refereeing treatment with sporting punishments that would endanger its sustainability and also that of La Liga. "He does not measure the consequences of this hunt in the medium and long term. And the worst thing is that if the courts do not rule in his favor [a ruling that proves blue-and-red sporting corruption], he will still have the eternal excuse of refereeing," he claims. "Constant suspicion will make the system collapse one day," he fears.

Although the struggle with Tebas goes back further, the failure of the Super League has also led Florentino to raise the tone against the president of the football clubs' association, one of the great defenders of the current statu quo of football in Europe. The latest dispute between the two leaders has arisen from statements by Tebas in which he compares Real Madrid Televisión, where referees are singled out every week, with the practices of the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Madrid again demanded the resignation of Tebas, who is now exposed to disqualification after the Higher Council of Sports (CSD) referred the matter to the Administrative Tribunal of Sport (TAD). "Florentino will not stop until he finishes him off," predicts Kike Marín, who recalls that the white leader has a direct line to the president of the CSD, José Manuel Uribes.

The value of a classic that is more than three points

In the midst of everything, the first Clásico of the season arrives with a Barça flying in the League, leader with a full house of victories, and a Madrid six points behind. Despite having won their last two matches 4-1, Mourinho's side is not consistent in their play. "If they return from the Camp Nou with another defeat and a nine-point disadvantage in October, there will be trouble," predicts Marín, who above all emphasizes the institutional implications of the possibility of enduring another season in the shadow of Hansi Flick and Lamine Yamal's Barça.

The fact is that Florentino has not yet called the next assembly of delegates, where he will have to approve the numbers and move towards the mixed ownership model he proposes, with the club's opening to the entry of external investors. Beyond his difficulties in enduring a public appearance, he needs the wind in favor of an exciting sports project so that the members vote in favor of his proposals. Therefore, if the ball does not go in, and considering that the last elections show that there is an alternative willing to challenge him, the most likely outcome is that he will postpone his plans. For the first time in decades, as he approaches his eighties, he runs the risk of no longer controlling Madrid as if it were his own backyard.