Two Fierce Presidential Elections From the Past

Q: What were the results of the 1995 Real Madrid presidential election?

In the 1995 election, Ramón Mendoza received 15,203 votes (45.2%), Florentino Pérez got 14,505 votes (42.8%), and Santiago Gómez Pintado had 4,154 votes (12%).

Q: What controversy surrounded the 2006 Real Madrid presidential election?

The 2006 election was controversial due to the suspension of postal ballot counting, which led to Ramón Calderón winning by just 246 votes over Juan Miguel Villar Mir.

Q: Who succeeded Ramón Mendoza after his resignation in 1995?

After Ramón Mendoza's resignation in 1995, Lorenzo Sanz was elevated by the board to finish out the term.

July 01, 1994. Madrid. Spain. The soccer player Michael Laudrup in a press with the president of the Real Madrid, Ramon Mendoza and with Lorenzo Sanz, after the signing of Michael Laudrup. (Photo by Quim Llenas/Cover/Getty Images) | Cover/Getty Images Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez called for fresh elections on Tuesday in a press conference that had elements of surrealism. It is almost certain that Florentino and his board will remain unopposed and continue in their roles. However, there were times when the Real Madrid presidential race was a fierce, edge-of-the-seat event. It was February 1995. Ramón Mendoza was the incumbent and was supposed to coast. He was up against a 47-year-old construction businessman named Florentino Pérez on his first try, plus a third candidate, Santiago Gómez Pintado. Final tally: Mendoza 15,203 votes (45.2%), Pérez 14,505 (42.8%), Gómez Pintado 4,154 (12%).

The campaign got intense. There were four televised debates, including one on Telemadrid moderated by José Joaquín Brotons that had to be staged as three separate pairings because the candidates wouldn’t sit at the same table. Mendoza won by 700 votes, but not without controversy. He didn’t get to enjoy the win. The club’s finances were a mess, and on 20 November 1995, less than nine months after his re-election, Mendoza resigned. He didn’t go to a fresh ballot. Lorenzo Sanz, already on the board and reportedly the director carrying the biggest share of the financial guarantees at the time, was elevated by the directors to finish out the term. Sanz then stayed on for almost five years, oversaw the 1998 and 2000 Champions League wins, and eventually lost the 2000 election to Florentino Pérez. The election of July 2006 – by raw margin – was the closest Real Madrid has ever come to flipping a presidency. Florentino had resigned in February. Five candidates qualified to replace him, which had never happened before in a Real Madrid election. The man expected to win was Juan Miguel Villar Mir, because he was supposed to clean up in the postal vote. Diario de León reported that on 30 June, the judge of Madrid’s Court No. 47 ordered the precautionary suspension of the postal ballot count, 10,511 votes in total, of which Villar Mir’s team calculated around 4,500 were his. Only the in-person votes got tallied. The numbers: Ramón Calderón 8,344, Juan Palacios 8,098, Villar Mir 6,702, Lorenzo Sanz 2,377, Arturo Baldasano 1,581. Calderón had won by 246 votes. Villar Mir refused to accept the result and appealed to have the suspended postal votes validated, which would have made him the winner. The courts didn’t back him. Calderón was president.

Two Fierce Presidential Elections From the Past

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