Florentino Perez didn’t tiptoe around controversy at Real Madrid’s Assembly of Representative Members — he kicked the door clean off its hinges.
In a fiery, gloves-off address, the Real Madrid president
tore into UEFA, LaLiga, Spanish refereeing, and Barcelona, insisting the club has no choice but to “fight back” against what he called abnormal and damaging practices shaping modern football.
Perez began by aiming straight at UEFA, accusing the body of overstepping and designing competitions that hurt supporters rather than serve them.
He also slammed the push for international fixtures stitched around commercial interests.
“It is not normal for UEFA to try to direct our destiny and play competition formats that harm the fans,” he said. “Their executives owe it to their voters. That’s why we are forced to play matches in Asia, near China.”
He then pivoted to what he views as a broken economic model restricting fans’ access to top-level football — and made a pointed nod toward the Super League’s proposed reforms.
“Fans should be able to watch football for FREE,” Perez declared.
“Thanks to FIFA for understanding this with the Club World Cup. I can only think of one reason why UEFA isn’t doing it — it means another year of huge salaries for them. Just like the LaLiga president, who collects a salary bigger than the Premier League president, even though he generates much less profit.”
But the sharpest attacks were saved for LaLiga president Javier Tebas.
Perez mocked Tebas’s comparison between the proposed Barcelona–Villarreal game in Miami and the NFL’s overseas success, calling the logic “absurd” and questioning why only Barcelona and Villarreal would receive extra financial incentives.
Perez also reignited the Negreira scandal, labelling it “not normal” that Barcelona paid the referees’ former vice president over €8 million across 17 years.
He wrapped up by casting Real Madrid as the only club with the strength to confront these issues head-on, condemning LaLiga’s opaque media spending and the CVC deal that, he argues, “mortgages the future of our clubs for 50 years.”
