Florentino Perez almost never speaks.
The last time he held a press conference like Tuesday’s, when we thought he would address Real Madrid’s disastrous season and the dressing-room crisis they are facing, was in December 2015.
Instead of doing that, Perez said he was calling a presidential election. It was the best thing to do to protect club members from people working “in the shadows” to damage Real Madrid, he said.
It is probably a strategy, to get people talking about this rather than other things — like the fact players have been fighting at the training ground. Or perhaps not. Perhaps Perez really does believe he is the victim of a big conspiracy aimed at removing him from power.
In any case, that’s not the point of this article.
“I’m not going to resign,” Perez began his speech on Tuesday. That first line sounded familiar.
My mind went back to August 2023 and Luis Rubiales’ infamous media appearance in which he defiantly refused calls to step down, in the aftermath of his kiss on Spain forward Jennifer Hermoso at the Women’s World Cup final that month. It made me want to change my nationality, out of shame.
I did not really think Perez would follow the same embarrassing path as former Spanish FA president Rubiales. But he was just getting started.
Perez had a pile of papers with him, and he also kept scrolling through his phone. It turned out he wanted to have a go at the media, too.
“Look at the two articles published by ABC today, against Madrid,” the 79-year-old said.
“One is written by a woman, who, I don’t even know if she knows anything about football.”
The article he was referring to was an opinion piece by Maria Jose Fuentealamo. On Wednesday morning, ABC published another article of hers in reply, in which she wrote: “I don’t talk about football in my column.
“I talk about what Real Madrid, as a historic institution, represents for society. About its colours. About sportsmanship. Because I’m a mother, and I know what children play, who their idols are, and how to nurture role models.
“Yes, Mr President, that’s who I am. A woman, oh, woman, who — what does it matter what I know about football? I do know the damage that happens outside the Bernabeu. Because this isn’t about football. And now I’m the one wondering if you know that or not.”
Later in his press conference, Perez indulged in further gallantry towards a female member of the media present who wanted to ask a question: “Let’s see, that little girl, for f—’s sake,” he said as he picked her out. “She’s got a right to speak; all you others are bloody ugly, for f—’s sake.”
That “girl” was Lola Hernandez of Fox Sports, who has been working in the industry for 32 years.
Naturally, these two incidents have provoked some reaction.
First, let’s hear more from Fuentealamo, who, in conversation with The Athletic, explained how she experienced what happened.
She said: “I immediately asked myself: ‘But what have I said to make this man react like this? I haven’t said anything that isn’t already out there.’
“In my column, I said that the athlete is the great hero of our time. We watch him all the time and we watch him even when he loses. And when they lose, we also need them to show dignity. That’s exactly what we’re not seeing at Real Madrid, nor what we saw yesterday at the press conference.
“It worries me because it’s paramount to teach our children how to lose, because we all know how to win. But perhaps nobody has put it to him in those terms.
“My colleagues at ABC immediately sent me the clip of what Florentino said. Florentino doesn’t care, and I’m not going to justify myself to him, but I’ve played football. The first person I’d send that clip to is my old football coach, from when I was a girl.”
Some journalists who cover Madrid regularly have told me that we saw the real Florentino Perez, unfiltered, and that, with his “little girl” (niña) comment, he was trying to make an affectionate or fatherly gesture.
But she is not his daughter. She is a professional who, like her male counterparts, wanted to scrutinise his management.
“He must think it’s chivalrous, polite or something of the sort,” says Gemma Herrero, a journalist who covered Real Madrid for Spanish newspaper Marca for 17 years.
“Really, he is an out-of-touch man who thinks he’s saying something funny. Florentino has remained in his ivory tower and his glass bubble and doesn’t understand that this is sexist behaviour. He still hasn’t got the message.
“If this had happened 20 years ago, we wouldn’t be seeing what we’re seeing now. Back then, they’d have said it was just a joke and that we were oversensitive, or that we had no sense of humour.
“Now, at least, we recognise this comment as something utterly sexist, and our male colleagues do too.”
Perez made another media appearance on Wednesday evening, on Spanish TV station La Sexta. He was asked about his sexist comments, but there was no apology.
“The poor girl was raising her hand and the person running the session wouldn’t give her the floor,” he said.
“That’s why I said: ‘Give it to that girl.’ That’s sexist.”
Fuentealamo adds: “Someone who isn’t sexist wouldn’t have said what he said at that press conference. And then you’d have to see my Twitter. You’d have to see the messages I’ve received.
“I didn’t realise there were so many people capable of telling me to go and clean floors. I thought we’d got past all this by now.
“Of all the feelings this brings me, the greatest is the satisfaction of being able to say: ‘Here they are’. You thought there were none left, that they’d died out, well here they are. And there are some in positions of power.”
In 2023, Rubiales tried to lecture us on “false feminism”. This week, Perez was patronising and disrespectful towards the only two women he mentioned in 64 minutes. And as Fuentealamo can attest, there are plenty more examples actually lurking in the shadows of a society that is trying to tackle sexism. When you see this behaviour from people in positions of great power, it makes you worry.
Perez almost never speaks. On Tuesday, he was asked why he has not appeared at press conferences more often.
“I’m the president and I don’t tend to speak,” he replied. “Why should I have to?”
After hearing how he referred to my fellow female journalists, maybe it’s for the best.
