Florentino Pérez said prospective investors will pay handsomely “for the satisfaction of having a relationship” with Real Madrid but receive nothing in return, as the president of the world’s richest football club pursues a contentious plan to bring in outside capital at a €10bn-plus valuation.
In a rare interview
with the English-language press, which came as he fights for re-election, Pérez
told the Financial Times that acquiring a stake in member-owned Real Madrid was
not like buying a traditional asset that would yield a concrete financial
return. “It would be like a sponsorship, let’s put it that way,” he said. “In
other words, there are people who associate themselves with Real Madrid without
expecting anything.”
After presiding over a trophy-laden 22 years at the helm of
Real Madrid, Pérez’s future lies in the hands of the club’s members after he
called a presidential election last month to quell growing unrest around the
club. While Real Madrid generated €1.2bn of revenue in 2024-2025, an all-time
record for a sports team, it has just ended a trophyless season characterised
by managerial turbulence and discord in the dressing room.
The challenger
Real Madrid’s long-serving president is being assailed by
his sole challenger, renewables entrepreneur Enrique Riquelme, for trying to
“privatise” the club. Its roughly 100,000 members, or socios, will vote on June
7 to choose which man leads Real Madrid for the next four years.
Last November Pérez announced that he wanted to sell 5 per
cent of the club — subject to a referendum — through a newly created
subsidiary. But despite his repeated insistence that members would remain in
charge, he has been thrown on to the defensive about his plan.
Real Madrid has failed to win either La Liga or the
Champions League for the past two seasons. Despite that, Pérez is pitching the
opportunity to investors as a chance to align themselves with one of the
world’s most illustrious and successful sporting institutions. People close to
the tycoon likened investing in Real Madrid to buying a work of art, an
opportunity that they believe could appeal to buyers ranging from luxury brand
owners to image-conscious billionaires.
Riquelme said Pérez’s “privatisation” plan crossed a red line. “Why do we have
to privatise something that already belongs to us?” the entrepreneur said in a
radio interview this week.
Pérez rejects the characterisation, insisting his
overarching goal is to formalise existing members’ “economic ownership”.
Bringing in outside capital, he said, was simply a means of giving the club an
official valuation. “I want the assets to genuinely belong to the members,”
Pérez said. “I want to distribute them among [the members], and I will continue
to fight until I achieve that.”
A pillar of Pérez’s re-election pitch is that he took over a
club that was buckling under its debts in 2000 and transformed it into a
financial powerhouse. At its nadir he used his personal wealth, earned in part
from construction company ACS, in which he owns a stake now worth roughly €5bn,
to provide a €147mn guarantee.
Pérez introduced the Galácticos policy of signing superstars
including Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham, but resigned in 2006 after failing
to deliver expected success on the pitch. In 2009 he returned, signing Kaká,
Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in the years that followed and helping the
club win six Champions League titles between 2014 and 2024.
“The club’s gone from being worth almost nothing to €10bn. I
tell you, in a few years it will be worth €20bn,” vowed Pérez, referencing a
recent Forbes survey that valued Real Madrid at $9.5bn. “I want that to belong
to the club’s history, to Real Madrid members — not for someone to come in and
try and take it for themselves.”
His time in the
wilderness from 2006 to 2009 appears to still rankle. Pérez insists repeatedly
that Riquelme is linked to Ramón Calderón, the man who replaced him as
president — a charge Riquelme rejects. Pérez speaks vaguely of
“anti-Madridista” forces opposed to the club — both in the media and inside the
club itself — that he feels are conspiring against him.
He also questions the motives of Riquelme, founder and chair
of Cox Energy. “People think this gentleman is coming not so much to help Real
Madrid as to get Real Madrid to help his businesses,” Pérez said. A
spokesperson for Riquelme said the 37-year-old had amassed “sufficient”
personal wealth. “His decision to stand for the presidency is driven solely by
a commitment to safeguarding the club’s values and ensuring that it remains
owned by its members,” they said.
Pérez said he had turned Real Madrid into the natural home
for the world’s top players and insisted “everything we do is designed to
generate more income so that we can have the best team in the world”. Riquelme, however, has said it is “sad” that
none of Real Madrid’s Spanish players have been picked for the country’s World
Cup squad.
Pérez also speaks warmly of José Mourinho, but declines to
confirm reports that he would bring back the club’s controversial former head
coach for a second stint if re-elected. To keep revenues growing,
Pérez is implementing new innovations such as a subscription
service under which fans paying €12 a month receive a new club jersey every
time one is released, a way of cutting out retail intermediaries. The club is
also harvesting as much information as it can on fans — it estimates there are
1bn Madridistas worldwide — via a loyalty programme modelled on airline
schemes.
Virtual reality
But more fundamental changes are afoot. Pérez argued the
proliferation of mega-stadiums in the middle of the 20th century launched the
first football revolution, followed by another fuelled by huge television
broadcasting deals. Real Madrid’s president believes the club is pioneering the
next transformation: watching games in virtual reality.
It is partnering with
Apple to broadcast matches on VR headsets in a way that will not only make
viewers feel like they are in the stadium but create the illusion that they are
actually on the pitch while matches are taking place. “When a player is about
to take a penalty, they’ll be standing beside him, watching,” Pérez said. The
service will be available from as soon as next year. Some advocates of the
technology, which is being used by the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team,
believe it is so realistic and immersive it will mean attending matches in
person becomes less enticing.
Stadium
But Pérez is not about to belittle another one of his
achievements: a €1.2bn overhaul of Real Madrid’s stadium. The project, backed
by US investment firm Sixth Street, was supposed to transform the Bernabéu into
a multipurpose venue that could generate income from huge music concerts.
But those plans have
been jeopardised by noise complaints from neighbours, which have brought
performances to an indefinite halt. Pérez insisted concerts would return soon,
but not before a high-profile visitor addresses a crowd in the Bernabéu on
Monday: Pope Leo. “Everyone who comes to the stadium leaves amazed. The Pope
will say the same,” Pérez said. “The only exception is [Riquelme] who says it
is rubbish.”
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