Florentino Pérez

Florentino Pérez
	Pérez in 2024.
Born	Florentino Pérez Rodríguez; March 8, 1947 (age 79); Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Citizenship	Spain
Education	Technical University of Madrid (civil engineering)
Alma mater	Technical University of Madrid
Occupation	Civil engineer, business executive, sports administrator
Years active	1971–present
Employer	ACS Group
Company	ACS Group
Organization	ACS Group; Real Madrid; Hochtief; Abertis
Title	Chairman and chief executive officer of ACS Group; president of Real Madrid
Known for	Building ACS into the largest construction group in Spain; the Galácticos policy at Real Madrid; chairing the European Super League
Net worth	Estimated US$2.5 billion
Political party	Union of the Democratic Centre; Democratic Reformist Party (secretary-general, 1979–1986)

Florentino Pérez Rodríguez (born 8 March 1947) is a Spanish civil engineer and business executive who serves as chairman and chief executive officer of the ACS Group, the largest construction and infrastructure company in Spain and one of the largest in the world, and as president of the football club Real Madrid.

Pérez trained as a civil engineer at the Technical University of Madrid, entered business in 1971, and spent the late 1970s and early 1980s in politics, serving on Madrid city council for the Union of the Democratic Centre and as secretary-general of the Democratic Reformist Party from 1979 to 1986. He returned to industry as vice-chairman of OCP Construcciones in 1993, and became chairman of Actividades de Construcción y Servicios — ACS — on its formation in 1997 through the merger of OCP with Ginés y Navarro.

Under his direction ACS grew from a mid-sized Spanish contractor into a group operating across construction, concessions, industrial services and environmental services on five continents, principally through acquisition: it took control of the German construction group Hochtief, acquired the Australian contractor CIMIC, and became for a period the largest shareholder in the Spanish toll road operator Abertis and a substantial holder in the energy utility Iberdrola. His net worth has been estimated at about US$2.5 billion.

He is more widely known outside Spain as president of Real Madrid, an unpaid position he has held from 2000 to 2006 and again since 2009. His first term introduced the Galácticos policy of signing one of the world's leading footballers each season, beginning with the purchase of Luís Figo from Barcelona in 2000; his second has produced the most successful period in the club's modern history, including seven European Cups, surpassing the record of Santiago Bernabéu. In April 2021 he was named the first chairman of the European Super League, a breakaway competition that collapsed within 72 hours of its announcement and whose legal consequences occupied European football for several years afterwards.

Background: Spanish construction and the concession model

The industry in which Pérez built ACS has characteristics that explain both the group's structure and the timing of its expansion.

Spanish contractors developed unusual capabilities during the country's post-Franco modernization, when European Community accession in 1986 brought structural funds and a sustained programme of motorway, rail, port and airport construction. The domestic market produced a small number of large, technically capable groups with experience of complex public works.

They also became specialists in the concession model, under which a private consortium finances, builds and then operates an asset — a toll road, an airport, a hospital — recovering its investment from user charges or availability payments over decades. The model converts a contractor into an infrastructure owner with long-duration cash flows, and Spanish groups exported it aggressively.

When the Spanish construction market collapsed after 2008, with domestic activity falling by more than half, the groups that survived were those whose revenue had already shifted abroad. ACS's international expansion, undertaken before the crisis, is the reason it emerged from it as one of the largest contractors in the world.

Early life and career

Pérez was born in Madrid on 8 March 1947 and studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, qualifying as an ingeniero de caminos, canales y puertos. He began his professional career in 1971.

He entered public life during Spain's transition to democracy, joining the Union of the Democratic Centre — the party of Adolfo Suárez that governed Spain from 1977 to 1982 — and serving as a member of Madrid's city council. He held administrative posts including responsibility for urban services in the Madrid municipal government.

In 1986 he stood as a candidate for the Democratic Reformist Party, of which he was secretary-general, in the general election. The party won no seats, and Pérez left politics for business.

ACS Group

OCP and the 1997 merger

Pérez was appointed vice-chairman of OCP Construcciones in 1993. In 1997 OCP merged with Ginés y Navarro to form Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, and Pérez became chairman of the new company.

The strategy he pursued from the outset was consolidation. Spanish construction was fragmented, and ACS grew through a sequence of acquisitions of domestic competitors, culminating in the 2003 purchase of Grupo Dragados, then one of Spain's largest contractors, which made ACS the leading construction group in the country.

Diversification

Pérez extended ACS beyond contracting into industrial services — power transmission, energy infrastructure and telecommunications networks — and into environmental and facilities services, and built a portfolio of infrastructure concessions.

He also assembled substantial holdings in listed companies. ACS became the largest shareholder in the energy utility Iberdrola, accumulating a stake approaching 20 percent in the late 2000s in an attempted move toward control that was resisted by Iberdrola's management and eventually unwound at a substantial loss during the financial crisis. ACS was for a period a leading shareholder in the toll road operator Abertis, and participated with the Italian group Atlantia in the 2018 acquisition of Abertis.

International expansion

The decisive move was the acquisition of control of Hochtief, the German construction group, which ACS pursued from 2010 through a gradual accumulation of shares and a public offer, taking majority control by 2011. Hochtief brought with it the Australian contractor Leighton Holdings, later renamed CIMIC, and a substantial North American business.

The transaction gave ACS operations in Germany, Australia, the United States and Canada, and shifted the group's revenue base decisively away from Spain immediately before the domestic market's collapse deepened. ACS became one of the largest international contractors by revenue outside China, with major positions in North American civil engineering and in Australian mining services and infrastructure.

The group has since worked on projects including transport infrastructure across North America, Australian rail and road schemes, and data centre and energy transition construction, the last of which Pérez has identified as the principal source of growth.

Management

Pérez has held both the chairmanship and the chief executive role at ACS for the whole of the company's existence, an unusual concentration in a large European listed company, and he has been the group's largest individual shareholder.

His approach has been described as engineering-led and highly leveraged: ACS has consistently used debt to acquire, has taken large positions in other listed companies, and has been willing to pursue contested acquisitions over extended periods. The Iberdrola position, which produced substantial losses, and the Hochtief acquisition, which transformed the group, are the two clearest illustrations of the method's range of outcomes.

Real Madrid

First candidacy

Pérez stood for the presidency of Real Madrid in 1995 against the incumbent Ramón Mendoza and Santiago Gómez Pintado. He obtained the largest number of endorsing signatures but finished second.

First term, 2000–2006

He stood again in 2000 and won with more than 55 percent of the vote, defeating the incumbent Lorenzo Sanz, who had assumed that European Cup victories in 1998 and 2000 would secure his re-election. Pérez campaigned on the club's financial position and on alleged mismanagement by previous boards, and on a specific promise: that he would sign Luís Figo from Barcelona. The promise, and its fulfilment, were decisive.

Figo's arrival began the policy of signing one of the world's leading players each season. Pérez originally described it as Zidanes y Pavones, pairing global stars with players developed in the club's academy; the signings became known as the Galácticos. Zinedine Zidane followed from Juventus in 2001 for a then world record fee of €77.5 million, then Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004 and Robinho in 2005.

The policy succeeded initially. Real Madrid won two Spanish championships and, in 2002, a ninth European Cup. Pérez also resolved the club's debt through the sale and redevelopment of its former training ground at Ciudad Deportiva, a transaction with the Madrid authorities that was highly advantageous to the club and that attracted persistent criticism as an instance of political favour; his claim to have cleared the debt was disputed by the later director Ramón Calderón.

The football deteriorated as the squad's balance was lost. The sale of the defensive midfielder Claude Makélélé to Chelsea in 2003, and the departure of the manager Vicente del Bosque in the same year, are generally identified as the turning point. Fernando Hierro later said that the loss of Makélélé was the beginning of the end for the Galácticos and the beginning of a new era for Chelsea. Real Madrid won no trophy from the 2003–04 season to the 2005–06 season.

Pérez was re-elected in 2004 with 94.2 percent of the vote, but resigned on 27 February 2006, saying that the club needed a new direction. Criticism during the period held that the strategy had been directed at marketing the Real Madrid brand, particularly in Asia, at the expense of the team.

Second term, from 2009

Pérez announced a new candidacy in May 2009 and was declared president on 1 June, having been the only candidate able to provide the guarantee of €57,389,000 that the club's statutes required.

He resumed the policy immediately, signing Kaká from Milan for just under £60 million and Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80 million, a world record, within days of taking office, followed by Raúl Albiol, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso. José Mourinho was appointed manager in 2010, and the team won the Copa del Rey in 2011 and the league in 2012 with a record 100 points.

Pérez was re-elected in 2013 and replaced Mourinho with Carlo Ancelotti, signing Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur for a reported £86 million — again a world record — together with Isco and Asier Illarramendi. The following season produced the Copa del Rey and a tenth European Cup.

The subsequent period was the most successful in the club's modern history. Under Zinedine Zidane as manager, Real Madrid won three consecutive European Cups in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the first club to do so since Bayern Munich in 1976. It won the league in 2020, and in 2021–22, with Ancelotti returned, won both the league and a fourteenth European Cup. A fifteenth followed in 2024, giving Pérez seven European Cups as president and surpassing the record of Santiago Bernabéu.

Pérez has presided over 37 titles in total, more than any president in the club's history. He initiated the reconstruction of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, announced in 2019 and completed at a cost exceeding €1 billion, converting it into a year-round venue with a retractable pitch and roof. Real Madrid has led the Deloitte Football Money League in revenue for most of his tenure, and Forbes has valued the club as the most valuable sports team in the world, at about US$6.07 billion.

He was re-elected in January 2025 for a term to 2029. A trophyless season prompted early elections in June 2026, at which he defeated Enrique Riquelme with 65 percent of the vote, securing a term to 2030; he pledged to pursue a sixteenth European Cup and welcomed the return of José Mourinho as manager.

The presidency of Real Madrid, which is a members' association rather than a company, is unpaid.

The European Super League

In April 2021 Pérez was named the first chairman of the European Super League, a breakaway competition involving twelve of Europe's largest clubs. The New York Times described him as the driving force behind much of it and the project as, to a considerable extent, his idea. It had been developed over three years with Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, though the final stages were rushed and the group had been reduced from a planned fifteen clubs to twelve.

Pérez argued that the competition would produce higher-quality matches, generate greater resources for the wider football pyramid through uncapped solidarity payments growing with revenue, appeal to younger audiences, and improve refereeing and video assistance. He cited the EuroLeague in basketball as his model, arguing that it had saved European basketball and that the Super League would do the same for football.

The announcement on 18 April 2021 met near-universal opposition from supporters, players, managers, other clubs, national governments, UEFA and FIFA. The principal objections concerned the closed nature of the competition, its elimination of sporting qualification, and the effect on domestic leagues and on promotion and relegation. Within days nine clubs, including all six English participants, announced their withdrawal, and the project suspended operations three days after its founding.

Pérez maintained that no founding club had formally left, that the participants were bound by contract, and that the project was on standby rather than over. He blamed the English clubs for losing their nerve and the governing bodies for acting aggressively, disputed the claim that the competition would have been closed, and said that UEFA's threatened exclusion of the participating clubs from its competitions would be impossible because the law protected them.

The dispute moved to the courts. The Super League company complained to the Court of Justice of the European Union in May 2021 that UEFA and FIFA had abused a dominant position contrary to articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; a Spanish court issued injunctions restraining sanctions, and Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus were admitted to the 2021–22 Champions League. The Court of Justice ruled in December 2023 that UEFA and FIFA's prior-approval rules, as then framed, were contrary to EU competition law, without endorsing the Super League itself.

Assessment

Pérez occupies two roles that are usually assessed separately and that are connected chiefly by his own method.

At ACS he has run a single company for nearly three decades, holding both the chairmanship and the chief executive role, and has built one of the world's largest contractors from a mid-sized Spanish firm. The judgment on that record turns on the Hochtief acquisition, which internationalized the group before the Spanish market's collapse and which is generally regarded as well-timed and well-executed, set against the Iberdrola position, which cost substantial sums and achieved nothing.

At Real Madrid the record is, on its own terms, the most successful in the club's history: seven European Cups, 37 titles, the highest revenue in football for more than a decade, and a rebuilt stadium. The criticisms are that the first term's commercial logic damaged the team; that his transfer policy has repeatedly favoured marketable signings over squad balance; and that his authority over a members' association has been exercised with limited constraint, the electoral guarantee requirement having in practice restricted the field of candidates able to stand against him.

The Super League is the point at which the two roles converge, and it is the episode most damaging to his reputation outside Spain. Its supporters regard it as an accurate diagnosis of European football's finances presented catastrophically; its critics regard it as an attempt by the largest clubs to guarantee themselves permanent revenue at the expense of the competitive structure that produced their status. The 2023 ruling of the Court of Justice vindicated part of the legal argument without reviving the competition.

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