Galactico king Perez quits Real Madrid
Florentino Perez has resigned as president of Real Madrid.
The club immediately announced Fernando Martin would replace him,
stepping up from his previous role as vice-president.
Perez was less than two years into his second term as Real
president, having been re-elected in July 2004.
Since the 58-year-old Perez replaced Lorenzo Sanz in 2000, Real
have won the Primera Liga title twice and the Champions League
once.
However, the club have not claimed any major silverware since
winning the league in 2003 and look likely to finish this season
empty-handed following a string of disappointing recent
results.
Real were knocked out of the Copa del Rey semi-finals by Real
Zaragoza earlier this month after losing the first leg 6-1, and
they also suffered a 1-0 defeat in the opening leg of their
Champions League last-16 encounter with Arsenal last week.
In the league, Sunday's 2-1 defeat at struggling Real Mallorca saw
Madrid fall 10 points behind leaders and arch-rivals Barcelona in
the standings.
During his tenure, Perez has employed six different coaches at Real
- Vicente Del Bosque, Carlos Queiroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano
Garcia Remon, Wanderley Luxemburgo and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro.
The current coach, Lopez Caro, was appointed in December following
the sacking of Brazilian Luxemburgo.
Under Perez's charge, Madrid signed England internationals David
Beckham, Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate, as well as
`galacticos' Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.
Perez confirmed his decision to resign at a press conference at the
club's Bernabeu stadium, saying: 'I called this extraordinary
general meeting because I believe we needed a change.
'Having analysed the situation I considered that this was the time
for me to step down.
'I presented my resignation this afternoon because I believe this
will be a change for the best. It is a decision I have thought hard
about.'
good la..they need to change their buying policy..the only good
thing he did was to overtake man utd as the top earning club..
