Riquelme has made the alleged threat of privatisation the cornerstone of his campaign against the incumbent, repeatedly stating that he entered the race "to stop the sale of the club." Pérez, standing for a seventh term, has responded with a detailed video statement — titled El Madrid no se vende — rejecting the characterisation point by point.
"The one who said that either has not understood or does not want you to understand," Pérez said. "Because it is exactly the opposite of what we want to do.
"The club will continue to belong to its members. It will have its president, its board of directors, its assembly of shareholders, elected every four years.
"And everything important at the club will be done as it has been until now. Those who want to deceive with talk of change — they just want to cause disruption."
Pérez then made the argument that the current structure of membership is, in financial terms, an illusion of ownership rather than the real thing — and that his proposal is designed to correct that.
"Today Real Madrid belongs to its members, without question, from a romantic and sentimental point of view. But from an economic point of view, we have nothing. And the authentic ownership also means being the owners of the value that Real Madrid holds — and being able to pass that on to our children when we die.
"Because today you die, you are buried, and your relationship with Real Madrid ends for ever. For you and for your descendants."
He laid out a three-point framework. First, the club remains a club in every structural sense. Second, the club may create a company that is 100 per cent owned by the club, into which football and basketball activities would be transferred — for the sole purpose of allowing external valuation of the brand. Third, and only if the members decide, a maximum five per cent stake could be offered to an external investor purely to formalise that valuation. That investor would have no voting rights and no involvement in any club decisions.
"This is not privatisation. It is the opposite — it is giving the economic ownership of the club to the members."
He also issued a warning about the vulnerability of the current structure.
"The current situation is very dangerous because a board of directors without scruples could come, indebt the club, ruin it, and when it is worth nothing — as was the situation I found when I arrived in 2000 — take control of the club for one euro. We have seen it at other clubs. And I do not want that to happen at Real Madrid."
Pérez is the strong favourite to win Sunday's election. He has been president continuously since 2009.