In the second call, as is usual year after year in the Assemblies of delegate members, the one for 2024 began in which the initial speech of Florentino Perez. With a quorum of 1,639 members, 783 of them present and 856 online, the white president began his long-awaited parliament at 10:36.
He did it after a long video of more than half an hour long that was It began with the anthem of the Valencian Community, in tribute to the victims of DANA. Then, muscle. Titles, records and collective and individual feats of the football and basketball teams during the last twelve months. Also a review of the achievements of the youth team, women’s football, the stadium renovation, the Foundation, the deceased former players and managers and the millions of white fans in Spain and around the world. Then came the president’s turn.
With his usual gray suit, blue shirt and dark tie, Florentino addressed the delegates present for one hour and 27 minutes and, for the first time, explained what the free football business model with which the Super League would be broadcast would be like. . The president used Netflix and Spotify as mirrors in which he wants to reflect the new continental tournament: «Free football would put an end to piracy, which is at unprecedented levels, as happened with cinema, series and music. Blockbuster was worth 7.6 billion euros in 2000. The owners of Netflix offered to sell their platform for 50 million, but Blockbuster thought that their business model was the best. He didn’t see the end of videotapes coming and went bankrupt. AND Netflix They already know their way. It triumphed and today it is worth 368,000 million euros,” Florentino explained: “We don’t want to be Blockbuster. “The Super League ruling has given us back our freedom, as will be seen in the future.”
The president of Madrid said that A22, the company promoting the organization of the Super League, continues to do its job and assured that they had not achieved a historic ruling from the CJEU to stay there. The Super League It is still in his head and he is convinced that it is time to change the course of the world of football, which places it in a critical state due to the decrease in television rights (he gave as an example La Ligue 1 and the Spanish championship) and the saturation of matches due to UEFA and FIFA, many of them inconsequential that have meant a decrease in the value of football: «In 122 years of history, we have only hosted an English team in Europe on 22 occasions. We have only played Arsenal once in history. With United, only once in the last 16 years. Nadal and Djokovic faced each other more than 100 times.
Florentino wanted to demonstrate this excessive calendar with a surprising fact. At 21 years old, Bellingham has already played 251 games, while at that same age, Beckham had only played 54: «10 years ago, UEFA organized 488 matches and now 769, that is, 57% more. The result is the decline of football. Today’s football is the reflection of a management that has lost sight of the followers and the health of the players,” said Florentino.
Expropriation of economic assets
There were sticks for everyone. Thebes, of course, got a good portion. The usual one by agreement with CVC and a new one, which was already advanced in the pre-assembly last Tuesday. An amendment to the Sports Law, approved just a year ago, by which Madrid’s assets would have been expropriated: «LaLiga wanted to take away 11% of our CVC income. And with the Sports Lawtried to introduce an amendment so that our commercial rights would be expropriated. They increased pressure on politicians and threatened a bosses’ strike. Athletic, Barcelona and Real Madrid react together. Thanks to the consensus between PP and PSOE, this amendment did not prosper. It is rare for these two parties to agree on something, but on this it did happen. I thank you. If this amendment is processed, today Madrid would not belong to its partners, but to its creditors,” Florentino explained.
The president assured that LaLiga acts with a lack of transparency in its management and revealed that he has been asking for explanations for some time as to why it subsidizes the media: “The president of LaLiga has refused to give us this information. How then do you justify the money you give to some media? Why don’t you reveal who the main beneficiaries of these payments are? Could they not be one of these digital ones that repeatedly attack Real Madrid? We think so… And if it does, it will have some end.
For this reason, Florentino announced that he wants to change the club’s organizational model. The idea is to bring a very specific proposal to a next Assembly, explain it well, and then have it voted on in a referendum: «We are exposed to these threats and I will kill myself to defend ourselves from everything that attacks our economic heritage. We will do everything necessary so that this club continues to belong to its members, and that is why I will present a proposal for the reorganization of the club that protects us and with which we truly are real owners of Madrid. I have no doubt that we will all want the heritage to remain ours.
Ballon d’Or to Rodri for compensating
Just as they also consider Vinicius a footballer of theirs, from the house, from the quarry even. And Rodrygo. Both Brazilians were labeled as two of the six youth players (the other four are Carvajal, Lucas, Fran García and Valverde) who currently make up the first team, although the two Brazilians arrived at Madrid at the age of 18 and their time in the reserve team has been testimonial. since from the first moment they occupied a place in the first team.
Florentino thus wanted to make a staunch defense of the youth team and Vinicius, whom he defined as the best player in the world. The president was emphatic when it came to judging the lack of the Ballon d’Or for Madrid’s ‘7’: «First, I want to say that Rodri has all our love. He is a great footballer, and from Madrid. He has nothing to do with this, but two seasons ago City won the treble and he scored the goal in the Champions League final and was not even among the top three for the award. Rodri deserves a Ballon d’Or, but not this year’s. “You cannot give an award for compensation.”
The president of Madrid read an extract from the ‘TuttoSport’ editorial that endorsed his arguments and took out the L’Équipe survey, prior to the Gala, in which the 41% of its readers considered Vinicius the winner. For him, not having been given the award is a scandal: «This year’s Ballon d’Or should have gone to a Real Madrid player. Whatever criteria are applied. Whether it was Vinicius, as it was a clamor. Or Carvajal, if he wanted to give relevant additional weight to the Euro Cup. Or Bellingham, who also reached the final of the tournament with England.
For Florentino it is very difficult to explain that the award did not go to a Madrid player, and that disbelief is supported by UEFA’s association with ‘France Football’ and ‘L’Équipe’: «UEFA said that their alliance would not have impact on voting. Wow! Well, the number of votes has increased from five to ten and the scores from six to fifteen. And we will have to ask the organizers of the award about the criteria of the journalists who vote. Ask ‘France Football’ and ‘L’Équipe’ if it makes much sense to ally with UEFA, now that they have told you that they have a monopoly. The Ballon d’Or must be organized independently and the votes must be in the hands of prestigious people. Without the impact of the vote from Namibia, Uganda, Albania and Finland, Vini would have won the Ballon d’Or. The thing is, some of these countries do not give Vinicius a single point. “It really can be understood that no vote is given to him.”
Concerts and parking lots
Regarding the Bernabéu concerts, Florentino repeated what this newspaper already said last Thursday. That Madrid does not earn money from them, only 1% of the total budget, and that all major cities host venues and tours. But if the authorities do not want it to be at the Bernabéu, there will be no problem. What he did not say a word about is how they are going to solve the acoustics of the stadium to be able to host concerts again.
An analysis similar to parking lots. Florentino stressed that it was a service for the Chamartin districtbut if the neighbors and the authorities did not want it, there would be no problem: «All the large neighborhoods of Madrid have always wanted large parking lots to improve their quality of life. The city council put these parking spaces out to tender, reserving a third of the spaces in good condition for residents. Can anyone understand that to play 25 90-minute games a year, 100 million a year are invested? Well, we are willing to do it. “It is a question of service for the Chamartín district because it is not going to be an important source of income.”
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