Real Madrid president Florentino Perez says he will fight a legal challenge that could loosen his grip on his position all the way to Spain's Supreme Court if necessary.
Perez began his second spell as Madrid president in 2009, and has since made incremental changes to the club's statutes that mean that all would-be candidates for the role must have been Real socios -- or members -- for at least 20 years and have a personal guarantee of over €75 million from a Spanish bank.
This helped Perez, a construction magnate, to be re-elected unopposed in 2013, but the statute changes have been challenged by a group of socios who claim the statute changes are illegal and that, as a result, a new presidential election should be called immediately under the old rules.
A local court judge in Madrid is due to hear the case on Wednesday, and Perez was questioned about the issue at the news conference on Monday at which he backed coach Rafa Benitez and spoke about a "campaign of lies" being waged against him in the local media.
Pressed by an AS reporter about Wednesday's court hearing, Perez said he expected a long legal battle but was confident that the club's next presidential election -- due in 2017 -- would go ahead under the current system.
"What is taking place the day after tomorrow is only the first instance judgement," he said. "Within a short period they will make a ruling; afterwards there will be an appeal and the most probable situation is that it will end up at the Supreme Court after a very, very long time.
"That is to say: nothing will happen on Wednesday. I have also read that it will be necessary to call elections. Well, no, that is not the case. The statutes are in force and the ruling is only final at the last instance. If tomorrow, next year or the year after there are elections, we will have the same statutes as we do now."
The former politician again defended the 2012 changes to statutes at the centre of the legal challenge, suggesting the aim was to comply with Spanish law and to protect Madrid from being taken over by unscrupulous outsiders who did not understand the club.
"Two years ago, someone here appealed changes that were made to two important points of the statutes, so that a foreign businessman could not come to take charge of the club," he said.
"[These are] extending the period of membership required to present a presidential candidature from 10 to 20 years and also what the law says, which is that members of the board of directors will guarantee 15 percent of the expenditure budget."