“Those who don’t like the new stadium aren't madridistas”

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez spoke to the members of the club at today's General Assembly and answered some of their questions.

Playing more sports

This is a tough time for Madrid, competing with other clubs where the owners have massive economic empires. The basketball section already loses money, and it’s an effort we make compared to other clubs who only have a football team. So I would affectionately say that we can’t dedicate resources to other sports.

Reducing the Academy

I didn’t say we’d eliminate the Academy, I said optimise. Other clubs that have two youth teams instead of three. What I said was that we are studying how to optimise it. Because every year a lot of players leave. There are clubs with less players who are very good. It’s just a plan, an idea, it won’t affect the production of more Rauls.

Debt reaching a new level (the club now has gross debt of 602 million euros)

I’m talking to Carlos Mendoza [club member and head of Asociación por los Valores del Madridismo the Association for the Values of Madrid, who has been fiercely critical of the debt at the club]. Each person in life chooses the role they wish to play. I don’t understand your role at Madrid. You’re giving ammunition to people who don’t like the club and who want to divide us. You should reconsider what you’re doing, which is something I don’t think you should be doing. Real Madrid members who see the big picture don’t need carry out a pseudo-opposition and then come here and vote to approve the accounts. You say you’re a lawyer or have a degree in politics. I don’t know where you work or what you’ve studied. But you have no idea about accounting. You hear it from others and they get it wrong. They say you’re a lecturer… What do you teach your students? I never said Forbes don’t take the debt into account. They take everything into account. My advice to you is that you think about what you’re doing and don’t do it again.

Ask UEFA or the Spanish stock exchange about net debt. The whole world admires us and you’re determined to tell a newspaper that we’ve got an unsupportable level of debt. But at Harvard there’s a case study that examines Madrid. People struggle to understand how we run a company with the ratios Madrid has, without putting any money in.

Management

Other clubs offer players increased salaries and sometimes we can’t keep them and we have to let them go. If we hadn’t won the Champions League we would have turned in a profit of 70 million euros. We paid out tens of millions in bonuses. And after paying them we still made 48 million euros and we’re number one. It’s thanks to the players, but also the executives who you say earn too much [some earn 1,000 euros a day]. If you want, we’ll hire them cheaply and pay them half that. [Ironic]

New Stadium

I’m killing myself to create the best stadium in the world. I’ve worked with the city council, the regional government. A pressure group, Ecologistas en Acción, have appeared and gone to court which has suspended the work, but what they’re saying about the stadium and the remodelation isn’t right. But we’re fighting hard, we’re hard at work. And additionally, people want us to do it without any money, without raising the debt or anything. The only way we can do the stadium is to get a sponsor who will link their name to ours for 15 or 20 years and allow us to pay the 400 or 500 million the new stadium will cost. That’s what will let us grow the legend. Those who can’t see it, they’re not Madridistas.

Whistling in the Bernabéu

I’ll take the opportunity to say that I am worried, that I’ve heard a lot of whistling in the Bernabéu. We should never cross that line where instead of making us stronger it makes us weaker. No more. Don’t let us fall into the trap. We should be the first to be critical, but without crossing the line. When I say the club belongs to the members, I mean the whole world. We need to unite to protect ourselves, from people who aren’t Madrid fans or who want an influence. We need to protect ourselves from a certain paper that is against us. Our strength lies in unity.

Sponsor

We’ve talked to 10 companies to see if any of them are able to bring their name to the Bernabéu in order to construct the new stadium. I said I would build it and I will, but I need to solve all the problems.

from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/1C0dKwO

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