Real Madrid Insists UEFA Influenced Last Year's Ballon d'Or Award and Is Anti-Real Madrid

All other top European football clubs will send delegations to attend tonight's grand awards ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet, regardless of whether their players are in contention for awards.
But for Real Madrid, the 2025 Ballon d'Or seems to not exist at all—it has never been mentioned on any of its official media channels. All insiders consulted for this article agree that the decision-making power behind Real Madrid's adoption of this stance lies solely with Florentino Pérez.
During Florentino Pérez's two tenures as president (2000-2006 and 2009 to present), the 78-year-old has centralized power within the club to such an extent that all final decisions are made by himself.
"Florentino controls everything: football matters, communications, business operations—every department of the club, he controls it all," said a source who has had frequent dealings with Real Madrid over the past decade.
However, Real Madrid's senior management's stance on the Ballon d'Or has caused trouble for other club employees, whose work includes promoting the club and engaging with sponsors and other business partners.
As the most high-profile awards ceremony in football, it can enhance a club's image and expand its fan base. Last year, such an abrupt boycott of the Ballon d'Or was regarded by many within the club as a public relations blunder.
"Many people in the club, perhaps the majority, believe it was a bad decision, especially regarding the timing and the way it was communicated," said an insider. "It sparked significant discontent."
For many people around Real Madrid, this is just another example of the "siege mentality" during Florentino Pérez's presidency.
Multiple sources told The Athletic that Pérez has long believed Spain can be divided into two camps: those who love Real Madrid and those who hate it. One of these sources summed up this prevailing sentiment: "Florentino truly believes that half of Spain are Real Madrid fans, and the other half are anti-Real Madrid."
After Pérez's European Super League project collapsed quickly in April 2021, UEFA and its president Aleksander Čeferin also joined this list of "anti-Real Madridists."
Sources familiar with Pérez's thinking stated that they believe UEFA influenced the decision not to award last year's Ballon d'Or to a Real Madrid player, and this is a direct consequence of Real Madrid's continued promotion of the Super League project—even though the Ballon d'Or is voted on by 100 independent journalists.
Multiple sources said that many employees who have worked at Real Madrid for many years, especially those in the communications department, believe that many parts of the world are actively working against them. This viewpoint helps explain why Real Madrid TV (RMTV) so aggressively targets the club's "enemies," such as Spanish referees or Barcelona president Joan Laporta.
The content of the programs is not directly formulated by Pérez or the club's senior management, but everyone at the TV station knows what kind of editorial line they must adopt towards anyone deemed an "anti-Madridist."
A former club employee said that the TV station, which broadcasts for free in Spain and is available online worldwide, is very important to Pérez "for political messaging purposes."
Before becoming a highly successful businessman, Pérez aspired to be a politician. His control over information drove changes to Real Madrid's club statutes, thereby greatly limiting the number of potential challengers for the presidency.
This has also helped to continue supporting the European Super League project and escalated the ongoing battle over money and power with LaLiga president Javier Tebas.
When the team performs poorly, storms of anger can also distract fans. Last year, the boycott of the Ballon d'Or occurred just hours after El Clásico rivals Barcelona lost 4-0 to Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
The club's most intense criticism of referees erupted in early 2025, when the team was going through a difficult season and ultimately failed to win any major trophies.
"We are against everyone, against everything," an RMTV commentator said live on air immediately after last year's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona. Real Madrid's senior management publicly stated that they were considering boycotting that match, because the match referees had angrily complained about videos aired in the days before the match that accused them of bias.
Barcelona won the championship, but instead of reflecting on another loss in El Clásico, Real Madrid fans were instead fed the message that the club's senior management was once again protecting them from attacks from all sides.