Real Madrid president Florentino Perez says there was something worse than Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni's row - 'It's very wrong'
Updated 13/05/2026 at 09:49 GMT+1
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Real Madrid president Florentino Perez played down the dressing room row between Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde in a bizarre press conference on Tuesday.
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Real fined the pair a combined ÂŁ870,000 after their recent spat, which resulted in Valverde going to hospital with a head injury.
But speaking to journalists, Perez - who is reportedly on the verge of bringing back Jose Mourinho as head coach - claimed it happens "every season" whilst saying there was something that bothered him more.
Perez said: "There was one year when I fired three coaches - it’s not the first time that’s happened.
"And it’s not the first time two players have fought. It happens every season because they get wound up. What happened here is that someone told it for the first time, and we know who told it.
"For me the leak is worse than the fight. The next day they’re friends and go have coffee. In my 25 years of history, it’s the first time I’ve seen it.
"I think it’s very wrong and I think it’s worse that they brought it to light. I’ve been here 26 years and there hasn’t been a single one in which two players, or four, haven’t fought."
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Perez also claimed he was going to call presidential elections at Real, as he hit out at his perceived enemies in a dramatic press conference that lasted more than an hour.
"They’re going to have to shoot me because I have the support of all Madrid’s members,” Perez said.
”I’m going to finish the bad people. It would be bad to say I am the best president in history, but I am. Every day I preside over Real Madrid and I run a business that is a world leader, that turns over €50 billion a year.
"With me we have won 66 titles in football and basketball. I have to come out and stop this. But not for me, for the members. I am the president, most valued in history. I don’t want to defend myself for myself, I want to defend the institution.
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"Some have said that I have terminal cancer. I’d like to take this opportunity so that the people who have been worried about me know that I remain president of Real Madrid and my company, that my health is perfect. I couldn’t be in both places if my health were not perfect.
"If I had cancer as has been said, I would have to go to an oncology centre. If I had gone, wouldn’t it have appeared everywhere in the world?"
Emotions are naturally running high at Real after a turbulent and disappointing season, with both Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa in the managerial hot seat and the Spanish giants failing to win the big prizes.
Real's great rivals Barcelona sealed the La Liga title with victory over Real in El Clasico last weekend, while the 15-time European Cup winners exited this season's competition at the quarter-final stage, beaten by Bayern Munich.
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