adminCRISTIANO Ronaldo has told Real Madrid president Florentino Perez that either coach Rafa Benitez goes or he — Ronaldo — will quit the Bernabeu. The reports come from Fox Sports which claims the comment has been leaked from someone within Ronaldo’s entourage. The Portugal international was booed by Madrid fans during Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat to Barcelona in the first Clasico of the season. The result leaves Madrid six points behind Barca in the La Liga table.
Ronaldo’s alleged comments aren’t the first time he has been disparaging towards Benitez. At the start of the season he was reported to have criticised the new coach’s tactics and it was claimed earlier this month that Ronaldo had told Perez “We will win nothing with this coach.”
“It’s either Benitez or me,” Ronaldo is reported to have told Florentino Perez after Saturday’s defeat. But Perez is also in the firing line. A poll for today’s edition of the Madrid-based newspaper AS shows that 66 percent of Real Madrid fans believe Perez is to blame for the club’s downturn in fortunes. The rest blame coach Benitez.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit brought by a group of potential successors to Perez will be heard in Madrid on Wednesday that could result in Perez having to resign. The group, led by lawyer, Rafael Martinez Campillo, claim that a change in the statutes barring potential candidates from standing if they have been members of the club for less than 20 years is illegal.
The qualification was increased from 15 years prior to Perez’s election in 2013 and the group claim this stipulation was increased without proper consultation.
The court could force Perez to resign, though that looks unlikely. His term of office is due to expire in 2017. — football gossip.
Online Reporter