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In relation to the serious comments, riddled with falsehoods and without foundation, made by Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez during the club’s Ordinary General Assembly this morning, LALIGA is forced to clarify the following points:
a) Multiple accusations have been made that seriously undermine the image and reputation, not only of LALIGA, but also of its clubs, distorting the substance of a number of judicial rulings, which are not final, and deliberately neglecting to mention dozens of rulings against Real Madrid.
Contrary to the content of a biased and unrealistic statement – claiming that LALIGA acts against the interests of Real Madrid – the truth is that the leaders of that organisation have been using it for years to try and push their own interests to the detriment of the national league championship and the rest of the clubs. Clear examples of this are the countless legal cases that have been brought against LALIGA since 2016, with various courts and tribunals having dismissed or rejected the appeals and lawsuits, and rebuked Real Madrid for its abusive behaviour.
With regard to the remaining LALIGA clubs, other than those mentioned, it should be remembered that they are organisations that deserve the same respect as Real Madrid, whose owners and directors are professionals who take their decisions with the advice of top-level legal and financial teams. To repeatedly insinuate that these clubs are being cheated by LALIGA, is not only untrue, but also offensive to them and to LALIGA.
b) The president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, seems to forget that within LALIGA, according to the provisions of its statutes, decisions are legitimately adopted by the affiliated clubs whose members have been democratically elected under a majority system by secret ballot since 2014, in the interests of democracy. If Real Madrid is not part of any of these elective bodies, it is exclusively because its current representatives and executives are not able to gain the necessary support. In this respect, it should be examined why an organisation that considers itself somehow superior to the rest, or claims to have institutional responsibilities in European football, fails to gain a minimum level of confidence from Spanish clubs.
c) It is also significant that for some time now it has been commonplace for assembly resolutions to be adopted with the only vote against coming from Real Madrid. Agreements discussed with Real Madrid are aimed at maximising the commercial value of the rights, especially audiovisual rights, as well as the growth of the competition at a global level. Legitimate and legal purposes that evidently do not benefit its particular projects, such as the Super League, a project that, contrary to what is claimed, has been recognised in court as creating a conflict of interest and seriously damaging the national leagues. A project in which, paradoxically and
surprisingly, clubs that are commonly referred to in the discourse when talking about violations of financial fair play can participate without any problem whatsoever.
d) Another example is the CVC Project, approved by LALIGA’s Extraordinary General Assembly in December 2021 with full guarantees, and about which the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, alludes to a judgment relating to a previous agreement in August. He omits to mention that the Provincial Court, as well as the Court of First Instance, have dismissed the precautionary measures requested against the final agreement on three occasions, based on relevant arguments such as ‘absence of regulatory infringement’, finding that there is no infringement of the law and that, contrary to what is claimed, ‘there is no infringement of the right to audiovisual revenue sharing’. Regarding the mentioned ‘alleged economic harm to newly promoted clubs’, it should be remembered that since the project was approved joining the CVC Project is voluntary for any newly promoted club. A relevant fact that highlights the serious lack of knowledge about the project by Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez.
e) We must also add the accusations regarding the recent agreements adopted by the Board of the First Division of LALIGA, which modifies distribution criteria that meet the provisions of Royal Decree Law 5/2015 of April 30, and whose dissent is contrary to the almost unanimous will of stakeholders. Thus, in line with an intentional hindering of the growth of the competition, preventing LALIGA from competing on an equal footing in the audiovisual market with its competitors, including the Super League. He even went so far as to file criminal charges against LALIGA and its president, which have not been accepted for processing by the National Court due to their lack of grounds, a point which he failed to mention despite indicating to the members that they would be promptly informed.
f) The accusations about LALIGA’s alleged intentions with regard to the processing of the Sports Law are also false. On the contrary, LALIGA has adopted a defensive position of preserving the current Sports Law model, in the face of amendments and proposals pushed personally by Florentino Pérez, for his sole benefit and to the detriment of the interests of the rest of the clubs. As an example, Florentino Pérez states that the new Sports Law has sought to incorporate the possibility of professional leagues having the power to sanction club presidents, despite this having been possible since 1990 (article 74.2.d of Law 10/1990).
g) The claims about LALIGA’s lack of transparency regarding the information provided to Real Madrid for the approval of its annual accounts and the settlement of audiovisual rights are also categorically false. This position has been rejected on several occasions by final court rulings, and these requests have even been considered abusive.
Aside from this, his statement fails to mention the extent of the exhaustive information provided (thousands of pages and documents, endless hours of individual meetings in response to his requests, with no questions or doubts left
unresolved, etc.). Even the Real Madrid representatives who attended the meetings signed a document acknowledging that they had been given answers to all their requests. It is absurd to question an expense if we consider the economic results obtained and the fact that they have been approved by the other clubs. We are not aware of Real Madrid having had the same degree of transparency and respect for the right to information with its affiliates in this Assembly.
He accuses LALIGA of an alleged lack of transparency, however, Real Madrid never did the same with the RFEF and its former president, where Florentino Perez was a member of its board of directors, as LALIGA and most clubs did.
A lack of transparency that was evident in the improvised and secret announcement of the Super League, when it was supposed to be part of the relevant committees approving the new format for European competitions, or in the LALIGA committees such as the Control Body.
h) Other noteworthy aspects of the speech are as follows:
– It is the current leadership and executives at Real Madrid that isolate and discriminate against LALIGA and continuously undermine its attempt to grow and promote the competition. This happens on an ongoing basis by not attending meetings, banning executives and players from participating in events, and vetoing any initiative from the organisation, instead of building and supporting it for the benefit of everyone.
– Understanding that the only non-commercial sports clubs in the LALIGA are Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic Club, which align themselves with Real Madrid against CVC, forgetting there are others that have not taken such a stance.
– Joining the current of reformation of the RFEF, even talking about restoring its professionalism, when there has never been any criticism or reproach against the management of Mr. Rubiales, who was aligned with Real Madrid on certain issues. Florentino Pérez was personally part of the RFEF Board of Directors with the responsibilities such a position entails. Both parties were aligned with examples of a total lack of transparency, such as the hidden and individual agreements about official competitions such as the Super Cup.
– He makes an apparent attempt at demagogy with regard to the price of televised football, given that it’s possible to watch football for less than 100 euros a month, thanks to offers from the operators. Moreover, LALIGA has no power to determine the price charged to fans for the product.
– Regarding the decrease in the value of Champions League revenues, President Florentino Pérez omits relevant information such as the fact that it has increased in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the United States and several Asian countries.
– Concerning the president of LALIGA’s annual salary. It should be noted that the president’s contract has not undergone an increase in accordance with the terms of the original contract of 2019, misrepresenting the approval of variable criteria, all of which was approved by the assembly of LALIGA in accordance with its statutes. is being misrepresented. Such false information matches the continuous reports of Spanish newspaper ‘El Español’, which lies about the information that LALIGA offers to its members and leaks misrepresented content. It is also surprising that the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, refers to the association LALIGA as ‘Tebas’ LALIGA’, an expression frequently used by ‘El Español’ and ‘Okdiario’. His continuous references to an alleged ‘ownership of LALIGA’ is disrespectful to the rest of the clubs.
