Florentino Perez pledges immediate ownership referendum if re-elected as Real Madrid president

Florentino Perez has confirmed he will call a referendum on Real Madrid’s ownership structure immediately after next Sunday’s club elections, should he secure a new mandate from the membership. The proposal would convert the club’s current socios into shareholders and sell a stake of approximately 5% to outside investors — a significant structural shift for a club that has been member-owned since its founding.

Perez first hinted at a change of model in 2024, framing it as a measure to protect Real Madrid’s long-term interests. Speaking to El País, he elaborated on the rationale, insisting that the 5% stake would carry no decision-making power and would function more as a branding arrangement than a governance change. “You could say that it would be more about image, associating with a brand like Real Madrid,” he said. “But it will be the 95% and the members that will continue to be in charge. I won’t die until I ensure the club’s patrimony belongs to the members.”

The president also addressed concerns about the club falling under outside control, taking aim at his sole election rival, Enrique Riquelme. “Someone who comes in, who has no money, who secures a line of credit to buy Madrid, that won’t happen,” Perez said. “The other candidacy is a syndicate of interests, the ones that went to the General Assemblies and voted without being members.”

On the question of whether further shares could be sold beyond the initial 5%, Perez was clear that any such decision would rest entirely with the membership: “Whatever the members want, and always by referendum.”

Perez has also outlined how the shares would be structured to prevent foreign influence. Under his proposal, members would not be permitted to sell their shares on the open market. Instead, they would designate a recipient — in practice a family member, or the child of another member’s family if no direct heir is available — to whom the shares would be passed. The mechanism is designed to keep ownership within a defined community rather than allowing stakes to circulate freely.

Given the scale of the change, any referendum outcome would require majority approval from the membership. A 5% sale at current valuations of the club would likely generate hundreds of millions of euros, though it would also introduce a degree of private commercial interest into the club’s structure for the first time.