Florentino Perez’s speech to Real Madrid’s General Assembly on Tuesday was anything but ordinary. It was a scathing attack on La Liga, UEFA, and Barcelona.
Perez reopened the case of Barcelona’s alleged bribery of former referees’ committee vice-president, José Luis Negrera, claiming it was the reason behind the Catalan club’s success. He also accused Javier Tebas of destroying Spanish football and reiterated his staunch support for the proposed European Super League.
In his controversial speech, Perez said, “I’ve heard people say that Real Madrid is against everything, and that’s not true. We simply find ourselves reacting more than we’d like.”
He added, “The level of Spanish refereeing is not normal, and it’s not normal that Barcelona paid the vice-president of referees more than 8 million euros for at least 17 years, for whatever reason, during a period that coincided with Barcelona’s best results in our country.”
He added, “It’s neither normal nor legal to try to prevent clubs from organizing their own tournaments. It’s not normal for UEFA to try to decide our fate and impose competition formats that harm the fans.”
He continued his attack on La Liga, saying, “It’s not normal for the La Liga president to promote a match outside of Spain. This didn’t even seem normal to Barcelona’s captain, Frenkie de Jong. It’s also not right for the league to support two teams, Barcelona and Villarreal, receiving extra payments for playing in Miami. Yet, we have to hear Mr. Tebas compare this to an NFL game.”
He went on, “It’s not normal for the league president to allow an investment fund to mortgage the future of our clubs for 50 years (CVC).”
He concluded, “It’s also not right for La Liga to allocate a budget to the media. There are media outlets created with the sole purpose of harming Real Madrid, like the case of Relevo, and what’s worse, they operate in a very opaque manner. Their president refused to provide us with this information.”
