© EuroFootball.com
After the presidential elections of the new Real Madrid on Sunday, former club director Ramon Calderon declared himself the winner, but his victory was not confirmed by the club, as there were uncertainties about the mail-in votes.
The 55-year-old lawyer claimed that he overcame Juan Palacios by a small margin.
"I won the elections," R.Calderon stated at the press conference. "The board does not want to confirm my victory because one of its members is trying to persuade others to challenge the results."
Shortly after the elections, another candidate, Juan Miguel Villaras Miras, announced that he would seek for the mail-in votes to be included in the election results.
A club representative confirmed that R.Calderon received 8334 votes, 246 more than J.Palacios and 1642 more than J.M.Villaras Miras. The other two candidates - former president Lorenzo Sanza and lawyer Arturo Baldasano - were far behind the top three.
Around 42 percent of the more than 66 thousand club members eligible to vote participated in the elections.
Disagreements arose over whether mail-in votes should be counted, as there were doubts about their reliability.
In his pre-election campaign, R.Calderon claimed that if elected, he would appoint former "Real" player Predrag Mijatovic as the club's sporting director, who scored the winning goal in the 1998 Champions League final, and promised to lure Italian Fabio Capello, who had previously managed the Royal club, as the club's coach.
The Spaniard also promised to buy Arsenal's midfielder Cesc Fabregas and Chelsea's winger Arjen Robben, and claimed to be negotiating the acquisition of Brazilian Kaka from Milan. Due to the latter statements, the Italian superclub even filed a complaint with FIFA for unauthorized actions involving their star player.
Other candidates accused R.Calderon of making empty promises that he would not be able to fulfill.
