Real Madrid president wants investors to buy up to 10% stake in club, backs Super League again

By Canadian Press on November 23, 2025.

MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez is considering allowing investors to buy a stake of up to 10% in the club, and insisted the Super League remains an “indispensable project” for the future of soccer.

Speaking to club members at the club’s general assembly on Sunday, Pérez said he will propose a statutory reform during an extraordinary assembly to allow for the possibility of outside investors to take a minority stake in the club.

“We will continue to be a members’ club, but we must create a subsidiary in which the 100,000 members of Real Madrid will always retain absolute control,” he said. “On that basis, this subsidiary could simply incorporate a minority stake, for example, 5% — never more than 10% — from one or more investors committed to the very long term and willing to contribute their own resources.”

Pérez said that would be “the clearest and most compelling way to value our club.”

“The fact that someone is willing to invest such a significant amount for a symbolic stake is the greatest demonstration of the value of Real Madrid,” he said without specifying the amount. “At the same time, such a limited stake ensures that control, governance and the essence of the club will always remain in the hands of the members, our delegates and our board of directors.”

Pérez said investors would be obliged to “respect our values,” contribute to the growth of the club and “help us protect our assets from external attacks.” He said Real Madrid would always have the right to buy its assets back from investors.

“In short, they will be a strategic ally and never an owner,” he said.

Pérez reiterated several times that members — whose voice would be heard during a referendum on the reform — would never lose control of the club. He said his proposal would make sure that the current 100,000 members are recognized as the real owners of the club, with the number of members fixed for the future.

“With this protection in place, no one will be able to diminish our status as owners or alter the balance that guarantees the independence and stability of Real Madrid,” Pérez said. “It will be us, the members of today, who will have the responsibility of safeguarding our culture of values and ensuring that our club continues to lead world football for many generations to come.”

He denied that the reform “would cost the members money or that we are doing this because we need the money.”

“When everyone knows that we are the richest club in the world and what we want is to remain so and defend our heritage. It’s complete nonsense,” he said.

Pérez said the reason for the reform was to “shield the club from external and internal attacks on our assets, and to highlight their value so that we are all aware of the treasure that we, as members, have in our hands.”

Super League

Pérez said the club remains fully behind the widely criticized Super League idea.

“We continue to insist that it is an indispensable project for the future of football because, without it, the gap between English football and the rest of Europe would be definitively unbridgeable,” he said.

“The Super League has already achieved, without question, a great success for football. We have permanently dismantled, in record time, a UEFA monopoly that had lasted more than 70 years and would otherwise have destroyed our future,” Pérez claimed.

The president noted recent court rulings that favored the club against UEFA related to the Super League.

“The resounding nature of the rulings obtained allows us, apart from promoting the organization of our own competition, to claim from UEFA the enormous damages amounting to millions that their illegal behavior has caused us by blocking our project in abuse of their dominant position,” he said. “I can announce here that we have initiated the corresponding process of financial claims against UEFA.”

Pérez again complained about the Spanish soccer league’s idea of trying to play a regular-season game abroad. In October, the league said that plans for Barcelona to play a regular-season game against Villarreal outside Miami in December had been called off, a decision that came after increased opposition to the match domestically.

Spanish league president Javier Tebas criticized Pérez on Sunday in the latest spat between them.

Madrid said all items discussed at the general assembly were approved almost unanimously.

“You can feel very proud of Real Madrid,” Pérez said. “Sincerely, I can tell you that we are stronger than ever. We are the best club in the world in terms of sport, finance and institutional structure.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press

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