Real Madrid has officially kicked off its presidential election process, following through on Florentino Pérez's surprise announcement earlier this week. The club's rivals now have just nine days—from May 14 to May 23—to submit their candidacies, with the deadline coinciding with Real Madrid's final home game of the season against Athletic Club.

Pérez, who has led the club since 2000 (with a brief hiatus), shocked the football world on Tuesday evening by calling a press conference to challenge his detractors. "If someone wants to beat me, let them run against me," he declared, adding that he would step down only if defeated in a fair election. In typical fiery fashion, he also remarked that opponents would have to "take him out with bullets."

This isn't the first time Pérez has dared rivals to step up—he has run unopposed in the last four elections. But this time, there may be a challenger. Enrique Riquelme, a prominent club member and potential candidate, revealed Wednesday that he sent an open letter to Pérez, published in Marca, requesting more time to assemble his campaign. In the letter, Riquelme praised Pérez as "the greatest president in the club's history" but called for a "broader, more transparent process" to encourage genuine member participation.

"We need to address persistent issues like postal voting and accessibility for voting members," Riquelme wrote. "An agreed-upon process for this election should ensure another twenty years of stability and leadership."

The club has not yet set a date for the vote, stating it will depend on the number of candidates. For now, all eyes are on whether Pérez will face his first real competition in years. As the saying goes in football: you can't win the Champions League without a fight—and the same might hold true for the presidency at the Santiago Bernabéu.