Less than four years ago, at the end of 2022, Florentino Pérez moved heaven and earth and managed to get Pedro Sánchez’s government to repeal the obligation for football club executives who were not public limited companies to guarantee 15% of the annual budget, a measure whose sole objective was to prevent the collapse of his beloved enemy Joan Laporta. The president of Real Madrid used his power and influence to help his close rival, who was then also a partner in the Super League, the president of Barça, overwhelmed by the problems of maintaining that financial guarantee without which he could not remain in office.
Read more The dark side of AI
The Barcelonan had to make enormous efforts in March 2021 to obtain the guarantee, after asking for help everywhere and with the complicity of the bank in charge of the operation, Sabadell. And it was in the early hours of the deadline day. But it was even more complicated for Laporta to maintain it, facing demands for withdrawal from several guarantors, from Jaume Roures to José Elías. That’s when the providential figure of the higher being appeared.
Florentino Pérez moved with extreme secrecy, as he always had, until last Tuesday, to get the yes from Pedro Sánchez’s government. Surprised, his official interlocutors asked him why he was helping the eternal rival and he, without hesitation, explained that he needed a stable Barça; the rivalry was essential for competition and business. Also, as has been seen now, as a lightning rod to divert attention when things go wrong. For example, resorting to the nefarious Negreira. A case that, in the words of Jorge Valdano, even being “a major scandal, is not enough to claim that Madrid was robbed of seven leagues.” But football is a world of excesses, verbal and economic.
Finally, on December 22, 2022, the representatives of the people, the Congress, voted for the law pushed by Florentino and the obligation of the guarantee disappeared. Laporta shook off the problem and even though it was no longer a condition to access the presidency, Florentino kept it at Madrid as a wall to protect himself perpetually.
He said nothing publicly then about his role in the matter and was careful not to mention it in the members’ assemblies. The episode was a striking example of the magical powers forged in the emblematic Bernabéu box. Forge of business, political pacts, lucrative laws, and conquest of wills.
The spell of the box no longer opens the doors of justice or urban planning regulations
At that time, the white president still held hope of pushing forward his European Super League, presented in 2021 and officially and humiliatingly buried for its promoter last February; although it had been dead for a long time.
Read more Man shot dead in the head on the street in the Sants-Montjuïc district of Barcelona
Discretion has always been Florentino’s trademark fox. Until last Tuesday. That day, a new profile emerged. The civil engineer had transformed, over the years, into an aged builder, very big, yes, very rich, too, but a megalomaniac builder, in real estate and personally. Nothing more, nothing less. A flashback of a quarter of a century to recover the arts of the perpetually mournful Josep Lluís Núñez Always complaining about the lack of recognition for his great feats leading Barça. Two stereotyped examples of feigned victimhood.
But the revelation of the Florentino that appeared this week transcends the subjective; it is not a personal matter. The powerful Bernabéu box has lost its spell and Madrid’s management has begun to accumulate too many black marks, stumbles that overshadow the story of the empire builder.
In football, the fans, the so-called social mass, the one that when invoked the most reasonable thing for the member is to reach for their wallet, accept practically everything. Opacity, excessive spending, lack of exemplary behavior, even respect, suspicious economic management, and even legal troubles. There is no need to go to Madrid to verify it. They forgive everything except poor sporting results. These are the unstoppable trigger of crises, the catalyst. Then yes, the rest of the problems emerge – economic, prestige, influence – which members do not pay attention to because their obsession is to participate in a spectacle where the only goal is to win. If trophies are won, there is nothing else.
And two blank seasons lead to thinking about other things. The failure of the Super League, a problem of authority in the international football world. The blockage of the commercial exploitation of the new Bernabéu after judicial rulings, which calls into question the president’s influence not only in the courts but, and perhaps more importantly, over political authorities. The debt the club now faces after doubling the promised cost in the stadium renovation and which without new businesses will be much harder to repay and with a seriously damaged economy despite having the largest budget in the world. All symptoms that the Bernabéu box has already left behind its best days, when Florentino avoided setbacks without noise or press conferences. And with hardly any trace in the press; like when the sports city was reclassified. Lost power. Forever? We will have to watch future election results; not those of Real Madrid, which according to experts are a foregone conclusion, but those of politics, of course.
Four years ago, Florentino helped Laporta by changing the law on the financial guarantee
In that environment, the sharks of the capital’s business world began to smell blood and upcoming maneuvers to replace the veteran president were anticipated. Florentino, who has navigated the turbulent waters of power and money for many decades, believed he detected that they were fabricating a narrative of senility expiration. And the press began to seem brazen to him, in the feminine. In the end, he decided to get ahead and strike. In his own way, of course.
Read more Barça, Copa champion after sweeping Atlético on the way to Oslo
