Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez has said that the club announced Julen Lopetegui as their new manager before the World Cup to avoid speculation.
Lopetegui was sacked as the coach of Spain national team barely 24 hours after that announcement and Perez has accused Spanish FA boss, Luis Rubiales, of “disrespecting” the club.
Perez was speaking as Real introduced Lopetegui as their new manager at a Bernabeu press conference on Thursday
“We had the legitimate agreements – it seemed all normal – and we then thought there would be a press conference between the president and Julen Lopetegui,” said Perez of the conversations between Real and the Spanish FA.
“Then it turned out to be about pride for the president, who has disrespected Real Madrid.
“There have been other cases – (Antonio) Conte, (Louis) Van Gaal – dozens of others who have agreed (to coach a club side) before or during a competition,” he said.
Perez also hit out at what he deemed as the Spanish FA trying to damage his club with threats of legal action.
“We need to work together against those who wish to destroy our image,” he continued.
“We need to come together against this wave of anti-Madridismo – especially when we’re having one of the best moments in our history.
“We still cannot understand why this agreement could affect the players, who really want to be world champions again, which is what we all want.”
Perez added that Real opted to make the agreement public to avoid speculation.
“We thought, in order to make this agreement before the World Cup, to make it transparent to avoid speculation and rumours,” he said.
“There’s no precedence that a manager agrees to be a manager after the competition, and that agreement has been interpreted as being disloyal.
“If you think it’s disloyal – well that’s not how we do things in the 21st century in Spain.”
“It’s not true at all.”
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