Ramon Calderon Clears Everything Up.
Ok. There has been a lot rumours circulating Real Madrid in the past few days. Some people are trying to malign Real Madrid’s reputation as the best club in the world of football. Alex Ferguson (I don’t call him Sir) is one of them and other (I believe) is most probably Florentino Perez (or the other candidates running for the presidential campaign in a few years time).
Initially it was suggested that Ramon Calderon was using the clubs assets for his own needs (and WANTS) and some newspapers actually gave some interesting numbers. That news obviously did not go down well do the Madrid faithful.
Fans and players alike, demanded explanation from Calderon and so Ramon Calderon held a press conference in which he cleared everything up.
Here is what he said in the conference.
“Thank you all for coming to this press conference in which, regrettably, the President of Real Madrid has to face very serious accusations from the media. I say they are serious because they refer to facts that are false and of a criminal nature that attempt against my honour and that of Real Madrid. I don’t know who came up with all this, but whoever they are I regard them as criminals who didn’t hesitate to access, manipulate and make inappropriate use of private bank accounts. The police has been notified and soon very unpleasant surprises will be made public.”
“I don’t know who the authors of such lies are, but I do know who those who collaborated with them are. They happen to be two media platforms I greatly admire and that have done very important things for this country’s democracy. They are Cadena COPE radio station, who broadcast this information through a nightly programme, and El Mundo newspaper, who published it this morning.”
“The information published by El Mundo is even worse because those who were responsible for it know it’s false and of a criminal nature. Not only did they fail to check their information properly -which is the least every journalist is expected to do-, but they already knew by 20:30 yesterday that it was false. Both the Club’s Executive Financial Director and myself told the newspaper yesterday, but they published it anyway, probably because truth sometimes destroys what was at first a good story. They knew the expenses that were published with the article were taken from my daughter Leticia’s personal account. I am very sorry this had to happen. Their impudence is such that they didn’t even check their information with Banco Gallego or the Club.”
“Everything I will present to you here is compiled in a dossier with all the information relevant to this issue. None of the expenses published in the article were paid by Real Madrid. None. None of those expenses were made by me; most come from my daughter Leticia’s private account. The Banco Gallego credit card mentioned belongs to me and hasn’t been used in the two years I’ve had it. I simply can’t understand why media platforms as serious as these could divulge such information. I have always been a strong supporter of freedom of speech and, as a lawyer, I have represented many journalists from different media on several occasions, always defending that freedom of speech is one of the essential pillars that sustain a democratic state. But freedom of speech has no room for insult, lies and criminal actions. I’m sorry to have to be here this evening, but the situation is so serious that I just couldn’t stand by.”
“Besides knowing I am not a scoundrel who benefits from Real Madrid and that I have never made any personal payments through the Club, a headline has been used to make society believe this is true. I will not tolerate it. This is no doubt a further step in a wave of false accusations that has simply gone too far. These people have accessed and manipulated private accounts. They used someone to manipulate the credit card number and to make it seem it was I who used it. This has gone too far and I don’t think it has anything to do with coincidence. Is the forthcoming General Assembly the reason behind this attempt to make me look like a dishonourable person? Do these people perhaps happen to believe that they won’t be able to get rid of me any other way now that the Club has had the greatest benefits in its entire history? Do these excellent figures and results make those who thought we would eventually crumble nervous? I don’t know, but if they read what they’ve said and gone ahead and published it they probably do. The truth is that things like this motivate me even more. In fact, a calm atmosphere would have greater effect than this in dropping my morale. You will always find me here, standing strong against criminal and mafia-like actions. We will not back down.”
“We’ve reported this to the police and their investigations so far are very positive. We’ve also demanded of those media platforms to respect our rights and rectify; the law gives every citizen accused of imprecise information the right to expect rectification. We hope this happens because everything said here has been perfectly documented in the dossiers that have been handed out. We’ve filed a police report against the violation of private data protection. My daughter has seen how her expenses have been criminally published related to a wholly different matter. We aren’t going to remain still in the face of this and people who despise truth and their own profession. I’ve talked to many of their colleagues and they are all ashamed of what’s happened. True professionals never publish something they know is false. I am hurt by the fact that it’s been published in El Mundo because I’ve been one of its readers for many years and I greatly respect what it’s done for Spanish society.”
“I am going to be much tougher from now on. I’ve made the mistake of being somewhat passive to accusations like these, believing they would stop some day, but this seems to be far from happening. It has been happening systematically for the last couple of years. I’ve been brave if nothing else in this life. Nobody is going to make me hide away. I will not let anybody get away with this. I never thought there could be people that would go as low as to access, falsify and use private data against me. I want to thank you all for being here and I apologise for my harsh words, but it is very painful to wake up one day and read things like this; it makes one sick to his stomach.”
“There are those who say I haven’t paid any taxes in the last four years, but I have here with me the documents that prove that I have. Some people have done a crummy cut and paste job to try to discredit me. This is very minor compared to the information regarding the credit cards, but I also wished to shed some light on the matter.”
“I’ve been accused of ‘curious’ things, like spending money at Vale do Lobo on the 15th and 18th of the month the team was there, when I arrived and left on the 16th and 17th, respectively. According to the article, I have expenses in Irdning from days I wasn’t there. This is so false that it is unnecessary to say anything else on the matter. I want Club Members to know what’s happening. I may make mistakes, but not things like this. My personal code of conduct prevents it.”
After the press conference, the Club handed out a dossier with the following documents:
1. A copy of the police report filed by Ramón Calderón at Chamartín Police Station.
2. A document requesting El Mundo to rectify, appealing to every citizen’s right to expect rectification.
3. A document requesting Cadena COPE to rectify, appealing to every citizen’s right to expect rectification.
4. A certificate from the Club’s Executive Financial Director, José Ángel Sánchez, denying the existence of the expenses mentioned.
5. A certificate from the Club’s Financial Subdirector General, Julio Esquerdeiro, denying the existence of the expenses mentioned.
6. A certificate from Banco Español de Crédito confirming the false nature of the data publsihed and broadcast by El Mundo and Cadena COPE. The expenses mentioned do not correspond to any Real Madrid credit cards.
7. A certificate from Banco Gallego S.A. confirming the false nature of the data published and broadcast by El Mundo and Cadena COPE. There is no credit card from said bank belonging to Real Madrid or its President.
8. Individual certificates from several companies and establishments involved denying the expenses mentioned (Real Café Bernabéu, Schloss Hotel-Irdning, Vale do Lobo, Palacio Fortuna, Clínica Ortega y Gasset, Mallorca Chocolates S.L., Clínica Plopieto-Alonso Cano,…)
Now as we can all see. Calderon is not just saying things like “Yeah, thats all false and I am a saint”, he is acutally giving us facts and numbers (which some people manipulated to tarnish Real Madrid President’s integrity, which in the end, would have hurt Real Madrid’s reputation).
I don’t know what wrong with Manchester United or Alex Ferguson. Real Madrid wanted to sign C.Ronaldo and the player wanted to come but Manchester United acted like jerks and didn’t comply. Since then, Ferguson has been constantly trying to engage in a war of words with Real Madrid.
Some Manchester United fans say that Real Madrid got a taste of their own medicine and that Real Madrid is unethical when doing business in the tranfer season, hmm. I would like the review the tapes of the countless ocassions where Manchester United have done even worse than Real Madrid (assuming that Real Madrid did anything that is unethical).
Yes, Real Madrid did try to force the issue but it was only because the player wanted to come to Real Madrid. If Ronaldo had said no in the first place then the saga wouldn’t have continued.
Alex Ferguon said that Real Madrid is more like a Franco Club, trying to take a shot at the golden history of Real Madrid. I searched a lot about what Ferguson said and came up with this. Someone else wrote this and I think, it gives a perfect reply to Alex Ferguons accusations against Real Madrid.
His real madrid site can be found here.
Greetings from a madridista in the U.S. As you may be aware Alex Ferguson has recently linked again the history of Real Madrid to the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco.
Nobody from the Real Madrid executive board or PR department (if such a department exists within the club) has taken the necessary steps to respond to this extremely offensive accusations. This is not the first time that Ferguson tries to tarnish Real Madrid legendary history with fake facts regarding the relationship between Franco’s regime and Real Madrid.
But at fansdelrealmadrid.com they are trying to set the record straight and make well-known in as many places as possible, the real history of Real Madrid:
Dear Mr. Ferguson,
We fans of Real Madrid -I believe there are several millions around the world- opened the papers yesterday to see that you had got it wrong, once again. Not unlike many Spanish liberal journalists, you awoke Francisco Franco from the grave to make the headlines once again.
One would think that the General’s exploits have no end, at least for his bitter enemies – the rest of the world have sent him where he belongs, to history books. It’s unfortunate that your many responsibilities probably haven’t left you time to read some of those books, since they would have saved embarrassment for you and dismay for us.
In the interview I’m referring to, you were speaking about Cristiano Ronaldo and how poorly Real Madrid had behaved, but suddenly, voilá, there’s Franco popping his head again (it wasn’t the first time you tried to link him to Real).
These were your exact words as published in The Times on Oct. 28, 2008: “What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain.” And obscene it is indeed. Too bad it’s an outright lie.
Allow me Mr. Ferguson to inform you of the facts, as I’m sure a distinguished man as you will appreciate the gift of knowledge: There’s never been any respected author or journalist able to establish even a marginal relationship between Real Madrid and Franco’s regime.
Furthermore, to the surprise of many, it can be claimed that Franco’s government was harmful to Real Madrid’s interests on several occasions, especially due to our president’s Santiago Bernabéu less-than friendly relationship with the regime.
It’s my pleasure to offer you three well-documented articles from the ongoing series “Whiter than you think – Addressing Real Madrid’s black legend”, running on this very site (Chapter one, two and three). I’m sure you’ll find it delicious reading, even if it breaks down all of your misconceptions. But allow me to briefly debunk three of the most popular myths:
1) Real Madrid was incredibly successful during -and thanks to- Franco’s regime. False. During the first 14 years of the General’s mandate (arguably the most strict and propaganda-heavy period), Real Madrid won… zero Spanish national competitions! In the same period, Barcelona and Atlético Aviación (known as Atlético de Madrid these days) raised the trophy on several occasions.
It’s interesting to note that the latter club was directly sponsored by the army, nurturing its ranks from players who should have been in the military service. In later years, Madrid and Barça’s national successes were quite even, as can be easily checked.
2) Real Madrid “stole” Di Stéfano from Barça. Absolutely false. The truth is that the player’s rights were hold by two different teams, and Barça refused to negotiate (and pay) to one of them (Millonarios of Bogotá), while Real Madrid did negotiate with the Colombian team.
Since neither Madrid nor Barça owned Di Stéfano completely, an independent mediator decided the player would belong to both clubs alternately, but Barcelona preferred to sell their rights to Real Madrid (getting a profit). It was Barcelona’s poor negotiating skills which led Di Stéfano to Real Madrid (complete story here).
3) Barcelona was badly treated by Franco’s government. Once again, completely false. Not only did Barça have notable national success -it wasn’t Franco’s fault that they were unable to win any of their European finals-, but it’s well documented that they received generous help from the regime in at least four occasions: The signing of Hungarian ace Kubala (bypassing several laws of the time) and the legal status change of estate owned by Barcelona on three occasions, resulting in enormous profits for the club. Barça felt so “mistreated” that they conceded two medals to the dictator, the last one as late as in 1974!
Almost everything else regarding the Madrid-Franco relationship is pure defamatory false material, not-so-innocently spread by Real’s haters, but don’t worry, Mr. Ferguson – our top men may have chosen not to defend the club, but its fans will make the truth known. We’ve mostly had a golden and exemplary history, the true stuff of legend, and we want to make it known world-wide. We can assure you that Real has very little to hide.
Your complains that Real Madrid president (Ramón Calderón) and executive board behaved poorly on the Cristiano case: Fair enough, many madridistas think exactly the same, but that gives no one right to try and tarnish the history of the most laureate club in the world. Yes, Calderon may be a disaster, but he will soon be forgotten.
You, on the other hand, are living history of Manchester United, and knight of the British Empire, and as such should put some care in your words, being very much the image of your club. Instead, you preferred to use your fame and prestige to try and pass bogus, uninformed arguments as facts, only to vent your anger at the men who tried to take a player away from you. Not exactly what would have been expected from a man of such high reputation.
Trying to spoil Real Madrid image, you have only damaged Manchester’s. If Manchester United most representative public figure doesn’t think twice before insulting a club and making a fool of himself, what can we think of ManU as an institution? But we don’t want to commit the same mistake as you did- we think Manchester United is a great club -it’s just that some of their employees -no matter how important- on occasions just aren’t able to match its greatness.
Conclusion
I think what I have provided above is more than enough to silence all doubters over this matter and I hope, Ferguson grows up (mentally, ofcourse he is like 66 years old ) and starts to respect Real Madrid for what it has done for European football.
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