Calderon's Downfall

When Yang Yang claimed the second World Footballer of the Year trophy of his career in Zurich and received overwhelming praise from media around the world, the Spanish media on the Iberian Peninsula only reported it feverishly for a single day before quickly turning its attention to another piece of news.

On January 13, Spanish Marca revealed in an exclusive front-page special that Real Madrid president Calderon had falsified records and threatened members at the club's General Assembly on December 7, 2008.

This was not news. It could even be called old news.

As early as December 2008, after Real Madrid's General Assembly, reports had begun to emerge from various sources. The main claim was that, in order to pass the financial report for the previous season and the financial budget for the current season, Calderon had resorted to fraud to get them through.

His specific method had been to arrange for a large number of fake member representatives to enter and participate in the vote, ultimately obtaining enough votes to pass the report and budget.

At the same time, to safeguard his fraudulent scheme, Calderon had specifically invited Real Madrid's radical supporters' organization, Extrem Sur, to attend, intimidating all the other members present.

Marca revealed that opposition at that General Assembly had been extremely loud. Yet, astonishingly, both reports had passed without difficulty. Even more surprisingly, no announcement had been made regarding exactly how many Real Madrid member representatives had taken part in the vote.

Not only that, the television cameras had filmed only those voting in favor, while ignoring those voting against. This had created the possibility of falsifying the tally.

In its exclusive special, Marca stated that it had obtained sufficient evidence to prove that the Calderon fraud scandal was real. Furthermore, it would continue investigating the