Real Madrid President Florentino Perez makes first public mention of changing ownership model

Last week various reports gained speed that Real Madrid President Florentino Perez was considering altering the ownership model at the club, after news of it was first broken in April. During the club’s general assembly on Sunday, Perez confirmed this was his intention.

The suggestion is that Perez will seek to take Real Madrid out of their status as a ‘non-profit sporting entity’ owned by the members, and seek to turn them into a standard private company. Members would then be assigned shares.

Perez hinted that change was afoot.

“Our club must have an organisational structure that protects us as an institution and also protects all of us as owners of Real Madrid. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that this club continues to belong to its members as it has done throughout our 122 years of history,” Perez explained at the club’s assembly.

“We will bring to this assembly a proposal for the club’s corporate reorganisation that will clearly secure our future, protect us from the threats we are facing and, above all, ensure that we members are the real owners of our club, the real owners of our financial assets in our own right.”

There is little certainty in what Perez says, nor what threats he is referring to, other than claims La Liga wants to take a cut of their TV rights to distribute them more fairly. Perez has been keen to underline that the members will still be owners of the club. Any change will have to be voted through by the members in a referendum too.

Real Madrid’s president is believed to be intending to run again next year for another term that would take him into his eighties. He argues that their position as a non-private company weakens them in a legal sense, although it is not yet clear where exactly this would see Los Blancos treated differently, as Relevo note.

If shares were to be issued, and Real Madrid were to become a private company or something similar, then shareholders would in theory have less power than members do currently. Although the entry barriers have been built high, in theory, any member can be elected president of the club, and any president can be removed, something that would be more difficult in a private company.