The FT’s Lex column takes a sceptical look at the Pink Un’s interview with Real Madrid supremo Florentino Pérez a few pages away. What’s the biggest prize in football? Many fans would point to the golden trophy awaiting the winners of the World Cup, which kicks off next week. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, however, reckons there’s an even more prestigious honour: owning a piece of his club. Pérez wants the fan-owned club to sell a stake to outside investors for the first time. But, to allay fears among existing members, he insists any new owners won’t actually have real ownership. “It would be like a sponsorship,” he said in an interview with the FT this week. In some respects, Pérez — the architect of Real Madrid’s so-called Galácticos strategy of signing the world’s most famous players — is in tune with the times. Investors in Elon Musk’s rockets-meet-social-media conglomerate SpaceX have practically no say over governance, but the excitement surrounding its impending ...
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 rev...