Perez’s media influence weakens

Real Madrid's Gareth Bale encourages Cristiano Ronaldo after he missed a goalscoring opportunity during the La Liga game against Malaga at the Bernabeu. Right: Barca coach Gerardo Martino’s in his fashionable light green polo shirt. Pic: Getty

International week is generally a quiet sales time for the Spanish sports press, with less of the usual ‘morbo’ rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona to report on.

Which is maybe why Marca went big with a claim last weekend that Madrid president Florentino Perez knew Gareth Bale was seriously injured when his world record transfer was completed in August.

Spain’s most read daily newspaper sensationally reported that Bale had a slipped disk in his back, which would require surgery — and that Perez had known this but decided against backing out of the deal with Tottenham and losing face at the last minute. Madrid’s press office quickly responded with a very specific denial of the story’s details, and the club’s chief of medical services was pushed forward to declare that, although there was a slight injury, there was no need for any long term concern.

Then on Monday Perez went on Spanish TV talk- show Punta Pelota to decry Marca’s scurrilous reporting, which had damaged both Bale’s morale and the president’s reputation. “It is hard to understand such a cruel report,” Perez said. “Above all, because it is not true.”

Florentino went on to claim he was shocked a paper with Marca’s reputation for serious journalism had printed a story it knew was untrue. This was a bit rich. Perez, like anyone else who regularly reads Marca (or its rivals) has seen plenty of speculation, hyperbole and make-believe on its pages.

This is often because presidents at Madrid (and Barcelona) have long used the local football press for their own ends, leaking stories they want made public, and leaning on editors to suppress those they’d prefer were kept hidden. Papers which toe the line generally get better access to players, advance notice of transfer stories and useful commercial partnerships. Perez himself is thought to have ‘approved’ negative coverage of both players (Gonzalo Higuain) and coaches (Manuel Pellegrini) during his time as Madrid president.

The Marca story was therefore maybe not a shock — but a sign of a power shift. El Pais has been a regular critic of Perez, and was especially hard on Jose Mourinho in recent seasons, but as Spain’s ‘paper of record’ it is in theory harder to lean on.

But Marca’s fellow sports daily AS has been taking an increasingly strong ‘anti-Florentino’ line in recent months — with editor Alfredo Relaño regularly repeating that, since signing David Beckham and sacking Vicente Del Bosque as manager in June 2003, Perez’s Madrid have won relatively few trophies.

Perez’s financial nous is also coming under increased scrutiny.

Last September’s AGM was told the club’s debt was just €90 million, but AS have since interviewed a string of disgruntled Madrid socios, former executives and financial experts who all claim the real figure is a whopping €541m, meaning the club’s finances are dangerously out of control. This would give the lie to Perez’s boasts that his trademark big money galacticos — like Bale – pay for themselves by generating huge commercial revenues for the club.

The AS-editorial line remains pro-Madrid, but is now clearly anti-Florentino. Marca are usually more ‘on-message’, but they also went hard against Mourinho last season — with Perez calling a press conference to dispute a story about Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos issuing a ‘he goes or we go’ ultimatum. Their recent coverage of Bale’s injury shows they are unafraid to stand up to the real power at the Bernabeu.

Time will now tell how important this trend is. The €100 million signing was fit enough to play 15 minutes in Saturday’s La Liga game with Malaga, winning the late penalty which sealed a 2-0 home win. But Perez’s grip on the Madrid-supporting media looks looser than ever before.