Reports: Real Madrid paid €300,000 to set up 'fake news' website to improve club's image

What’s the story?

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has admitted to having paid €300,000 to set up a ‘fake news’ website – namely El Diario Bernabeu – to help improve the image of the Santiago Bernabeu outfit, if reports in El Confidencial (h/t RT) are to be believed. According to the report, the news has emerged after an ongoing investigation into money-laundering in Spain namely Operation Punica was launched by the Central Operations Unit of Spain’s Guardia Civil Civil police.

The Real Madrid president denied taking money in any form from Alejandro de Pedro – who is believed to be the main man behind the money laundering scandal and also refuted claims of his involvement in the fundraising of political party – Partido Popular.

Perez told the court: “That question annoys me a little. He wouldn’t have dared to ask me something like that. He never spoke to me about that.”

In case you didn’t know...

The ongoing investigations are aimed to uncover the truths regarding a €250 million money laundering scandal that happened in Spain. The conspiracy involves senior politicians, city councilors, business owners and civil servants among others. De Pedro – who is also famous as the ‘fixed of Punica’ was a central figure in all of these dealings.

The heart of the matter

Perez has revealed that Societe Generale’s head of corporate and investment banking, Donato Gonzalez had introduced De Pedro to him as an expert in online reputation management.

The Los Blancos president then paid him €300,000 to set up the website – El Diario Bernabeu – which was used to publish positive news regarding the Santiago Bernabeu outfit, with an aim to improve the club’s image and their social media following. Further to that, the website was also used as a platform to push any agendas that the club had.

The website was also used by the club to pressure former manager Carlo Ancelotti into giving more game time to then world record signing Gareth Bale, along with helping in negate any negative publicity that the club garnered online. The platform was also used to criticize refereeing.

Video

El Dario Bernabeu’s former director Javi Iglesias can be seen questioning Carlo Ancelotti regarding not starting Bale frequently. This was exactly what De Pedro and Perez the night before as revealed by the text messages between the two parties.

Here are the text messages exchanged between De Pedro and Florentino Perez following the press conference:

De Pedro: “Pres, this morning the coach was asked like I told you.”

Perez: “Good.”.

There are also instances of other interaction between the two, which includes the website spreading pictures of Busquets’ stamp on Pepe’s head during an El Clasico in March of 2014.

Ever since the club have decided to cut all ties with the online website and have focussed on their partnership with Microsoft, who have agreed to develop a software to enhance the club’s social media presence and also improve their image.

Author’s Take

This is a huge scandal involving one of the biggest clubs in world football. The investigation is ongoing and is expected to reveal further interesting evidence regarding Florentino Perez’s involvement in the scandal. The repercussions of Perez’s admission is yet to be seen but will it affect his presidency? We will have to wait and watch.