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Perez quits as Real Madrid president
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-28 08:54
MADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Florentino Perez resigned as Real Madrid president
on Monday, a day after his side lost 2-1 to struggling Real Mallorca and with
his club facing the prospect of a third successive season without a major
trophy.
Florentino perez
attends a news conference after resigning as Real Madrid president.
[Reuters] | "I decided to call an urgent board
meeting today because I believe that the club needs a change of direction and as
a result I have decided to resign as president of Real Madrid.
"Something has been going wrong and everyone could see that in yesterday's
match against Mallorca. That's when I made up my mind to leave.
"I hope this decision will help us change direction and I believe that we
still have a chance of achieving something in the European Cup this season. At
the very least I hope it will enable us to plan properly for next season."
The 58-year-old construction magnate said that director Fernando Martin, a
leading property speculator, had been the unanimous choice of the board to take
over in his place.
Perez was elected president by club members in 2000 and returned once again
in a landslide victory in July 2004.
He was responsible for ridding the club of its massive 270 million euros
($319.8 million) of debt by selling it's city-centre training ground for a
reported 480 million euros soon after he came to power.
GALACTICO POLICY
However he will be best remembered for his "Galacticos" policy which brought
in a string of world-class players, such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo
and David Beckham and helped make Real the most glamorous football club in the
world.
The policy also acted as the springboard which allowed Real to become a
global leader in the marketing stakes and overtake Manchester United as the
richest football club in the world.
On the sporting side Perez met with early success, with the club winning the
Champions League in 2002 and the league title in 2001 and 2003.
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