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發表於 2006-3-8 20:43:56
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The last emperor
Phil Ball
It's been that kind of week, one of those that give the impression that the centre of the universe is in Madrid, specifically within the imposing walls of the Château Bernabéu.
Real Madrid had two massive games coming up - first the home 'derbi' against a revived Atlético, and then the trip to Highbury this week. A time for knuckling down, for stability and reflection, after the disappointing defeat at Mallorca and the less-than-private war of words between Raúl and Ronaldo - the captain having accused the Brazilian of disloyalty to the cause.
On the Monday evening after the Mallorca defeat, President Florentino Pérez called a press conference and gave out his particular version of stability by resigning, and leaving the country open-mouthed.
It's difficult to convey to a non-Spanish audience the impact that this resignation had. The post of President of Real Madrid has always been one of a quasi-political nature, with the position at times seeming to attract more attention and influence than that held by the Prime Minister. Certainly, on Monday night, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the PM himself had resigned.
It's hard to analyse Pérez' reign satisfactorily, because in most cases people have had a very personal and subjective reaction to him, ranging from reverential awe to the deepest loathing. Emilio Butragueño, in one of his less judicious moments, once said of Pérez that he was not of this world, that he was a supernatural being equipped with powers not available to ordinary mortals.
Butragueño had just been promoted from one of those Catch-22 'Deputy Deputy' posts to Director of Football - on the departure of Jorge Valdano - so it was only natural that he should offer up his gratitude in a public way. Pérez was never heard to contradict this epithet, and indeed, maybe his greatest fault was that like all tottering emperors, he had begun to believe the myth. He was a successful man, Chief Executive and major shareholder of Spain's largest property consortium and President of the world's most famous sporting institution. Which one is easier to manage? A good question perhaps - but if Pérez thought that it was the latter, he now knows rather better.
Santiago Segurola, Spain's best football writer by several kilometres, once told me that Pérez had only taken over at Real Madrid to prove to his over-bearing and difficult-to-please father that he could do anything - that he could turn his hand to the country's biggest post and succeed.
Pérez' father, a successful man himself and still alive, is apparently one of those dads who is never satisfied, over-critical and over-bearing, never admitting to his son that he was pleased with him - never allowing him to relax until he'd reached the top, and then refusing to admit that he was impressed. When Segurola wrote a profile on Pérez a couple of years ago in which he mentioned this awkward father-son relationship, Pérez rang Segurola in his office. 'Me has pillado' (You've sussed me out) he told him, then hung up.
It was a telling little episode, and one that showed up Pérez as a more complex man than many believed. When he took over the presidency in the year 2000, after an outrageous promise to sign Luis Figo converted him from rank outsider to favourite overnight, he set about the job by doing what he knew best - organising the finance.
Keeping a low profile and using the educated and smooth-speaking Jorge Valdano as a public shield, he turned over Madrid's debt of 185 million pounds literally overnight, and with it financed the huge outlay on Figo, Ronaldo and Zidane - the first three of the so-called 'galácticos'. 'Nothing pays for itself better than a star player' said Pérez, on the eve of Ronaldo's arrival from Inter, but more cynical observers might just as easily observe that nothing pays for itself better than political influence. 'It ain't what you know', as the old saying goes.
Indeed, one way of looking at the Pérez resignation is to look at it in purely political terms. It's not the sort of analysis you're likely to read in the lap-dog Madrid press, always too afraid to really attack a man who wielded so much power - but you might have seen it occasionally in the Catalan press, and I'll repeat its essence for you here.
The argument goes that the first three years of Pérez' reign were so enormously successful (two league titles, one Champions Cup) because during that time the Spanish government was run by the Partido Popular - the right-wing party for whom a young Pérez had held a minor post some twenty years before taking over at Real and whose leader and Prime Minister, José Maria Aznar, was a Real supporter from birth. Not only that, he was a mate of Pérez from way back, as was the party's present leader Mariano Rajoy.
Other prominent figures such as Pio Cabanillas and the head of the Caixa bank, Josep María Alemnay, were also willing to lend a hand whenever it was convenient. At times, the presidential 'palco' at the Bernabéu resembled a committee meeting of ministers at the Moncloa. The echoes back to Franco's times were uncomfortable ones, but they were far from being merely symbolic.
When Lorenzo Sanz, Pérez' predecessor, had tried to sell the land of the old Ciudad Deportiva (Training Ground) to raise capital, no-one had taken the bait. This was probably because Sanz lacked what the Spanish call 'enchufe' (plug), a magical word that still moves mountains here in Spain. The plug of course means 'illicit influence', something that Pérez, with his high profile in the business corridors of the capital, had in abundance.
The Madrid local government (using tax-payers' money - many of whom supported Atlético Madrid) mysteriously bought the land for 300m pounds and decreed that the re-development would include four business towers, two of which would be owned by Real Madrid. It sounded like a nice deal, and indeed, it wiped out Madrid's massive debt at a stroke - a debt that had threatened to seriously extinguish the club as it set out to continue its football-led oligarchy into the new millennium.
The planning restrictions on the land had also stipulated that the land was not free for redevelopment. But once the deal was under way the re-classification of the plot was brought about by ad hoc legislation and carried through in 24 hours - whereas it would normally have taken about three years and several miles of red tape to change the rules in such a way.
But all this cosy back-scratching came to an abrupt halt in 2004 when the Partido Popular suddenly lost power to the socialist PSOE party, after the government's poor handling of the Madrid bombings. Although Madrid stayed PP, the new Prime Minister, Zapatero, was a Barcelona supporter (although he is not a Catalan), and Aznar and several of his cronies faded quickly into the background. The beginning of the end? Possibly. It certainly coincided with an upsurge in Barça's fortunes, and a shift in football power to the east.
Pérez himself claimed in his resignation speech that he had 'failed to educate' the players - whatever that means. It was certainly a way of shifting the blame; as if he were really implying that although he had made mistakes, in the end it was all the fault of spoilt brats like Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos that had brought the club to its knees - if that is indeed where it is. Three years without a trophy, assuming that they don't go on to win one this year. He'd done all he could, said Pérez. Now it was up to someone else to try.
That 'someone else' is Fernando Martín, himself a man of property and a buddy of Pérez from the Real Madrid board. Elected hastily on Monday night by a team of men still loyal to Pérez, the handover hardly looks like a new 'year zero'. Rather it looks like a continuation of the old regime, but under a new titled head. Had Pérez truly wanted to turn his back on the club and free it of his influence, he would have called elections and persuaded the whole board to resign. As such, Martín can stay until 2008, voted in by Pérez, basically.
Meanwhile, back at Base Camp, Real were beating Atlético 2-1 in the derby, without the services of Ronaldo, dropped from the squad for the first time since he signed in 2002. Cassano, drafted in to replace him, scored the opening goal and generally played rather well.
Closing ranks, the tabloid Madrid press are now out for Ronaldo, and are beginning a campaign which will see the Brazilian blamed for everything, from Barcelona's 10-point lead to global warming. It's the way things work here, and Ronaldo, whilst not entirely blameless, will be watching from the sidelines with a wry smile on his face. Someone has to pay the price.
Up to now the list has been a rather long one - of people who have been found guilty of capsizing Pérez' otherwise impeccable ship, with its well-swabbed decks and its well-oiled engine-room. Valdano fell on his sword, Camacho had 'personal reasons', Queiroz was an egotistical smoothie who had gotten too big for his boots, Luxemburgo 'didn't understand', Del Bosque was fat and didn't comb his hair, and Ronaldinho was 'too ugly' to join the cruise - but that's another story.
Pérez was at his best in the first two years, when he kept a low profile and appeared from time to time like an affable academic, confident in his ability to pull the strings but otherwise disconnected from the complexities of the football pitch.
But once he made his most infamous announcement, defending his transfer of Makele and the purchase of Beckham - 'I've sold a player who passes four yards for another who passes it forty'- it was clear that he was losing it. Not that Beckham has let him down. Indeed, his marketing pull has contributed in a big way to officially making the club the highest earners in the financial year 2004-2005. He's also played pretty decently, and is admired by the Madrid faithful - never an easy thing to achieve. Zidane and Figo have left their mark too.
History will probably judge Florentino Pérez favourably, but for the average supporter and observer of La Liga, he'll still be loved or loathed, depending on which side of the political fence you mow your lawn. Like Philip II, the King who four hundred years ago presided over the decline of Spain as an imperial power, Pérez never trusted the people to whom he was supposedly delegating his powers. The stormtroopers - Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Baptista, Zidane and Salgado will almost certainly be in pastures new next season, a clear-out that may officially end the galactic period and usher in a new more workmanlike image - let's call it the 'terrestrial era' for now.
We shall see. Change does not come easily to empires, until they truly decline and fall. Highbury this week will have something to do with the club's immediate destiny, but as far as the Bernabéu is concerned, it's business as usual.
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