Florentino Pérez stated he was ‘not here to talk about sporting issues’ during his uncomfortable Real Madrid press conference. The club president launched a scathing attack on the media, demanding elections but offering no timeline, electoral commission, or resignation details.
“Good afternoon, I regret to inform you that I’m not going to resign.” In a packed, sweltering press room at Valdebebas, an audience hastily summoned witnessed a bizarre news conference that left many in disbelief. Pérez sat at a desk with a phone he kept glancing at and papers he never read, announcing presidential elections at Real Madrid. Yet he failed to provide a date, an electoral commission, or the resignation required for polling to actually occur. No mention was made of the team’s on-field struggles, the coach, José Mourinho, or any explanation for the season’s disappointments. “I’m not here to talk about sporting issues,” Pérez said. Instead, he delivered a surreal, repetitive rant lasting over an hour, long after his own staff tried to wrap it up. Directors in the front row and lining the walls exchanged bewildered looks—this was really happening. Pérez continued endlessly, the incoherent ramblings of a 79-year-old insisting “my health is perfect.”
Benfica are reportedly targeting Fulham’s Marco Silva if they lose Mourinho to Real Madrid. “I’m enjoying this,” Pérez said, but clearly it was time to leave. The uncomfortable laughter was more at him than with him; this was his first press conference since Zinedine Zidane “totally unexpectedly” walked out. “Facing” the press implies interrogation, but this was more a confrontation. Questions weren’t answered; they were cues to repeat the same points or introduce another untrustworthy newspaper or radio station.
Back in 2018, he looked sad; this time it swung between almost funny and deeply unsettling—accusatory and threatening, demanding that enemies conspiring against him step out of the shadows so he could defeat them, like a falling emperor’s script. Paranoia was palpable. “They’re going to have to shoot me, because I have the support of all Madrid’s members,” Pérez said. “I’m going to finish the bad people.” Who these “bad people” are remained unclear; no identification or conditions for standing were given, just a challenge to come out. That’s made difficult by design: Madrid’s statutes require a Spaniard with 20 years of membership and €187m. Pérez “stood” unopposed in 2025, 2021, 2017, 2013, and 2009—a democracy that seems less than democratic. He alluded to businessman Enrique Riquelme but refused to name him, instead referencing “that man talking to the big electric companies with a South American accent.”
More enemies lurked within and outside the gates. “Leave the internal enemies to me,” he said. External foes included the ultras, and of course, the referees—the unresolved Negreira case was still a threat, with the club preparing a dossier for Uefa. Pérez claimed he had been robbed of seven leagues. As for the real enemy behind all the bad: “Are they in the room with us right now?” Yes, he said. That might explain why he called the press conference—the worst of all, where reporters were targets.
The media conspires against Madrid and against him, Pérez insisted, alleging radios and papers collaborate to damage the club. Words like “horrible,” “resentful,” “anti-Madridista,” “conspiracy,” “collusion,” and “fake news” appeared. He mentioned “those from ’68” and “regime intellectuals.” He claimed that digital sports paper Relevo was created solely to attack Madrid and had gone out of business, €25m in debt—a cautionary tale. He announced he had always subscribed to ABC but was canceling his subscription after reading a piece that said he was “tired,” and confronted Ruben Cañizares, the ABC reporter present who didn’t write that piece but was accused of “going for Madrid every day.” Cañizares responded with dignity the president lacked.
Some reporters received warmer greetings: “You’re friends… but have a word with Segurola; there’s one everywhere.” Around and around he went. “Infamy, infamy, they all have it in for me. And it would be bad to say I am the best president in history, but I am.” He cited figures to prove Madrid is the greatest, biggest club. Everything he does is for the good of the members and “for the good of football,” he said. “I want kids in Africa to see football for free.”
“They say: ‘Where is Florentino?’ They say I don’t exist.” But here he was. And it was bizarre, baffling—and just bad. Bad? He’s the best, he said. “Every day I preside over Real Madrid and run a business that is a world leader, turning over €50bn a year. ‘I am tired,’ it says here. With me we have won 66 titles in football and basketball. I have to come out and stop this. But not for me, for the members. I am the most valued president in history. I don’t want to defend myself; I want to defend the institution.”