Spanish publication El Confidencial have published a leaked voice clip of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez criticising club legends Iker Casillas and Raul Gonzalez.
“Casillas is not a Real Madrid standard goalkeeper, what can I say? He’s not and never has been,” said Perez in comments published by El Confidencial.
“He has been a big failure of ours. The problem is people adore him, love him, talk to him, they defend him so much.
“He is one of the biggest frauds and the other is Raul, the two biggest Real Madrid frauds are first Raul and second Casillas.”
The two legends were not the only players to be bad mouthed by Perez. The rest of the team was also on the receiving end of negative comments from the president.
“The players are very selfish, you can’t count on them for anything,” said Perez. “If you do, you’ve made a mistake and they’ll let you down, it’s ridiculous. I have an awful view of the players.”
Real Madrid believe that the quotes resurfacing are a part of a smear campaign being carried out against Perez. The Madrid president is also the man in charge of the plans for the European Super League. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus remain the only club in protest of UEFA’s monopoly over European football, and according to them, this is part of a scheme to weigh the facts in their favour.
Perez outlined that the quotes originally came out in 2015, and the timing of them coming back up again is peculiar. He also talked about how they have been taken out of context by the media.
“The quotes published are from conversations secretly recorded by [the journalist] Jose Antonio Abellan, who has been trying without success to sell them for years,” said Perez.
“It is surprising now, despite the time which has passed, that they have been picked up today by the newspaper El Confidencial.
They are isolated phrases taken out of the wide context in which they were spoken.”
UEFA are still ensued in a legal battle with the three rebel clubs. And court in Madrid has told the governing body that they cannot rule the clubs out of the Champions League. Should they do so, they will have to pay compensation and it could indeed be UEFA’s way of getting out of the big payments and still ban the clubs for opposing them.
