Former Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon has slammed the way the club is being run by current incumbent Florentino Perez.
Perez has changed the way in which people can challenge his presidency, with any potential candidate having to satisfy a number of conditions.
These include the need to have been a season ticket holder for 25 years and the ability to guarantee 15 per cent of the club’s operating budget, around €77m at the moment, while there must also be bank guarantees to confirm the money is in place.
It is a state of affairs that Calderon [pictured] feels shows that Madrid is not being run for the people anymore and has ceased to be a democracy.
“I’d rather talk about the good things that are happening at Real Madrid, but if you talk of the social way the club is being run then I’d say it isn’t good, neither for the club nor the President,” he told Sky Sports’ Revista de La Liga programme.
“He’s changed the by-laws and now nobody can dare to be President or to change things. That, as I said, is bad for the club because he didn’t need [to do] that.
“He has the consensus of the members, things are going well, and it was a mistake from him.
“I wouldn’t say it’s against the law but he has changed the by-laws of the company. You can’t do that and nothing has happened like this in history, so perhaps he was afraid of something, I don’t know.
“He’s quite happy there and that’s normal. I don’t blame him for wanting to be there, because I was there, and at times you know there is going to be something exciting [happening].
“It’s not a democracy now. It should be. He is always saying the club is for the members but it is not.
“I’ve sometimes said that when clubs were looking for a [rich] Sheikh there was already one at Real Madrid,” he quipped.
Calderon was President of Madrid from July 2006 until January 2009, when he resigned following allegations of vote-rigging involving the confirmation of the financial budget.
