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Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez Defends Santiago Bernabéu Plans

Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez "rarely misses a chance to talk in public about how his own role is solely to be the guardian of an institution that is owned and controlled by its members," according to Dermot Corrigan of ESPN.com. At last week's announcement of a €400M ($435M) project to redevelop Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Pérez "once again stressed that Madrid's socios made the important decisions at the club." He said, "Our club has some everlasting values. The most important of all is that Real Madrid has no owner, it belongs only to its 'socios,' who are the people who set its direction" (ESPN.com, 10/21). Corrigan reported in a separate piece Pérez defended multi-million euro plans to redevelop the Bernabéu at a "stormy Annual General Meeting." The event saw socios group Compromiso Blanco question Pérez's "management of the club." The group is unhappy at what it says "is a lack of democracy surrounding the way in which important decisions are taken and club money is spent." Unlike at Barcelona, Real Madrid's members "are not getting the chance to vote on the project in a referendum," despite Pérez often talking about "how the club is owned and controlled by its socios." He said, "We chose the least expensive proposal, of €400 million to €420 million ($457M). What do you want, that we lose the contract with IPIC? There are people here who are not serious. How would we ask the socios? Do you want a referendum for [Toni] Kroos and [Luka] Modric's new contracts too?" Pérez was "confronted by socios who alleged that Madrid's true financial position was more perilous and claimed the club could need to be converted into a limited company to survive." He responded, "If I had not come here in 2000, with a personal guarantee of €170 million, the club would be a private company by now and you would not be here talking" (ESPN.com, 10/23).

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