Florentino Perez not interested in public debate with Real Madrid presidential challenger | OneFootball

On Monday, Enrique Riquelme was asked about his vision for Real Madrid if he is elected the new president of the club.

After all, the approval of his candidacy opened the doors for the club’s first elections in two decades.

The new candidate admitted that he will be releasing a detailed manifesto later this week, but the few words he spoke made it clear that he is looking forward to a debate with Florentino Perez.

“Real Madrid is not only the seven Champions of that canvas that is hanging, but there are eight more.

Enrique Riquelme requested a debate. (Picture credit: Instagram/@enriqueriquelmev)

“That’s why, since we have been given the opportunity, we want to debate,” he said, taking a dig at Florentino Perez.

Request rejected

As reported by El Mundo in a recent update, Perez will not entertain Riquelme’s request to have a presidential debate for the Real Madrid elections.

The current president believes that he has nothing to gain by sharing the stage and taking questions and hits from Riquelme’s side.

In fact, he feels that going up for a one-on-one debate will only give his opponent more legitimacy by standing face-to-face with him, thereby improving his chance of creating an upset.

Riquelme’s campaign details

Perez will not get into a debate. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

As it stands, all signs point to Perez’s opponent handing out his election manifesto on Wednesday as he proclaimed in a media interaction yesterday.

As it stands, he has already inaugurated his office for the election purpose and is going strong to convince club members that they have been silently hard done by the current president.

His call for a debate, needless to say, was understandable as it is a general practice in any election, especially for a sporting institution’s presidency.

Should Perez indeed decline, it will not paint a good picture of his leadership and may be misinterpreted as a fear of being opposed.