The 'M' in Madrid stands for money, but for how long?

While papers throughout the world have been churning out one story after another on how the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Movement has spread to all parts of the world as global citizens – to use a term coined by them, the 99% — have staged protests in financial capitals throughout the world calling for an end to corporate greed, Spain has seen its share of protests too. More than sixty — yes, sixty — cities in the Iberian Peninsula have been played witness to protests by the Indignados —the Indignant in English — who started the occupy movement in May, with more than eighty thousand citizens thronging the Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s central square, massing in protest against Spain’s banking institutions, who have been lending vast sums of money to entrepreneurs and investors and very low interest rates, with the loans repayable over long periods of time. It is, therefore, safe to asume that a large number of these protestors in Madrid are Real Madrid fans, and what is common between these protesters and Real Madrid are the banks, who at the moment, are strapped for cash. Now while this much has been established, what significance does this hold? As most of you may know, before the arrival of the oil-rich Arab Sheikhs and a certain Suleiman Kerimov, Real Madrid had the not so unenviable tag of being the world’s richest football club. That was pretty clear when Fiorentino Perez’s was Presidente of Real. Under his era, Los Blancos made some of the world’s most expensive purchases. The purchase of midfield generals Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Luis Figo, anchorman Claude Makelele, Brazilian goal poacher Ronaldo, England’s next big thing Michael Owen along with marauding fullback Roberto Carlos and other recruits such as Fernando Morientes, Robinho and Jonathan Woodgate along with players from Madrid’s Cantera such as Raul Gonzalez, Jose Guti and Carlos Pavon ushered in the Galactico era, which Perez called Zidanes y Pavons, wherein he planned to field a blend of players who had climbed the youth team ladder (Pavon) and international superstars (Zidane). On paper, the team was easily one of the strongest sides around. But having so many high profile players at the Bernabeu meant the situation resembled an egotistical powder keg waiting to blow. Infighting within the team, the lack of freedom given to successive Real coaches and an unwillingness for players to accommodate teammates meant that after winning accolades for a couple of years, the team imploded, the galacticos — on whom the Madrid faithful had turned their backs — had disbanded, meaning the Zidanes y Pavons experiment was a failure. Post-Galacticos, the Madrid team has seen two massive refurbishments to the team, one that was overseen by Manuel Pellegrini, where Xabi Alonso, Raul Albiol, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were brought to the club, the last transfer breaking the the transfer record which they had set for Zidane. The other by Jose Mourinho, which saw more reinforcements in the form of Mesut Ozil, Nuri Sahin, Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira and Ricardo Carvalho join Kaka and Co. That of course is excluding the Dutch-obsessed period at the Spanish capital, where Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart, Ruud van Nistelrooij, Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar pulled on the white shirt. [caption id=“attachment_115638” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Real Madrid may have a crisis on their hands very soon. Reuters”] [/caption] Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by Real ever since football fans have been following the Bernabeu outfit, yet the stark reality is that they have always remained second-best in Spain: FC Barcelona rule the roost in Spain at the moment, and despite massive investements by the boardroom staff, Real are unable to overhaul their bitter Catalan rivals. And if the current economic situation continues, Barcelona could maintain their hegemony for a long time to come. What’s worse is that Real could fall down the ladder in La Liga. What most of you might not know is that Real Madrid are funded by Spain’s financial institutions, the same ones that are now cash strapped and facing protests by frustrated Spaniards: a majority of the funding that has come Real’s way has been loaned to them by banks, with the same conditions that was promised to the investors and entrepreneurs who made a beeline to Europe until so recently. With Real losing their main source of capital, how will they be able to compete in Spain, and more worryingly, Europe? Madrid’s Cantera is yet to provide a reliable player who can shoulder the burden of leading a team to success. Players such as Esteban Granero, Pedro Leon and Sergio Canales feature sporadically at best. On the contrary, Barcelona regularly promote youth through the system. La Masia graduates such as Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and of late, Thiago Alcantara, Jefferson dos Santos, Pedro Rodriguez and Andreu Fontas are names the loudspeakers at the Nou Camp regularly sound out. Even the chasing pack, such as Valencia, Sevilla and Villareal have been steadily blooding their youth team players into the first team. Real, however, have not. That may be because the glamour of watching Real play is seeing eleven superstars take to the field week in, week out. That is the reason Real have the world’s largest fanbase. Unless, however, they are able to sort out their financial issues, they are going to go down a slope that is as slippery as it is steep. The Indignados said during their protests that they are paying for something that they have not created. Sadly that is not the case with Real. They have splurged what can only be termed as insane amounts of money without really looking at the future. Unless drastic measures are taken, they, like a significant percentage of Spaniards today, will be forced to sell their most prized possessions for a fraction of their value just to survive. Sad, but true.