Florentino Pérez is trying to turn Barcelona into the villain of Real Madrid’s collapse.

After a season defined by fractures inside the dressing room, institutional chaos, and another year without major silverware, the Real Madrid president has suddenly launched a media offensive centered around the Negreira case, referee conspiracies, and alleged anti Madrid journalism.

The timing is impossible to ignore.

Pérez’s 40 minute appearance with Josep Pedrerol this week was not an attempt at transparency. It was an attempt at redirection. Rather than addressing why the most expensive and politically protected project in world football is beginning to unravel, Pérez chose to reopen old wounds involving FC Barcelona and present Real Madrid CF as the victim of a vast institutional conspiracy.

It was classic siege mentality politics. Feed the supporters an external enemy so they stop looking inward.

The Negreira case remains a legitimate and serious legal issue. But Pérez is not discussing it out of moral concern. He is weaponizing it at the precise moment his own club is descending into dysfunction.

Behind the noise lies a far uglier reality.

The dressing room reportedly resembles a powder keg. Internal relationships have deteriorated. Reports of a physical altercation between Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde only reinforced the sense that tensions inside the club are boiling over.

Then came the managerial chaos. Xabi Alonso arrived carrying enormous expectations, only to be discarded almost immediately. Medical staff controversies surrounding Kylian Mbappé only deepened the perception of a club operating without clarity or control.

And at Real Madrid, excuses mean nothing without trophies.

That is what makes Pérez’s recent public appearances feel so revealing. Instead of confronting why Madrid have now gone two consecutive seasons without a major title, he spent large portions of his press conference reminding everyone about his 66 trophies and calling himself the greatest president in football history.

Legacy matters. But football has never been a museum.

The game judges you by the present tense.

Pérez went even further by claiming that La Liga is “an enemy of Real Madrid” and suggesting refereeing conspiracies cost the club nearly 18 points this season. He painted journalists as hostile actors in an anti Madrid campaign and even drifted into remarks widely condemned across Spain as sexist and arrogant. During the press conference, he questioned whether a female journalist “knew anything about football” and referred dismissively to another reporter as “that girl,” comments that triggered backlash from Spanish media and public figures alike.

At moments, the entire performance felt less like leadership and more like deflection spiraling into paranoia.

The clearest evidence came with the sudden announcement of elections. Pérez declared that opponents would have to remove him “at gunpoint,” framing himself simultaneously as both victim and savior.

That is the strategy now.

Turn the anger toward Barcelona. Toward referees. Toward journalists. Toward invisible enemies. Anywhere except the boardroom.

And perhaps that approach will work for a while. Pérez remains one of the most successful presidents in football history and his achievements are undeniable. Florentino Pérez built modern Real Madrid into a commercial and sporting superpower.

But even giants eventually face the same question.

What happens when mythology can no longer hide reality?

Because the uncomfortable truth is that the much anticipated Mbappé era still has not delivered the dominance it promised. The football has regressed. The atmosphere around the club feels toxic. And the louder Pérez speaks about conspiracies, the more it begins to sound like a man trying desperately to stop supporters from noticing what is happening directly in front of them.