Florentino Perez resigned as Real Madrid president on Monday, a day after his side lost 2-1 to struggling Real Mallorca and with his club facing the prospect of a third successive season without a major trophy.
"I decided to call an urgent board meeting today because I believe that the club needs a change of direction and as a result I have decided to resign as president of Real Madrid.
"Something has been going wrong and everyone could see that in yesterday's match against Mallorca. That's when I made up my mind to leave.
"I hope this decision will help us change direction and I believe that we still have a chance of achieving something in the European Cup this season. At the very least I hope it will enable us to plan properly for next season."
The 58-year-old construction magnate said that director Fernando Martin, a leading property speculator, had been the unanimous choice of the board to take over in his place.
Perez was elected president by club members in 2000 and returned once again in a landslide victory in July 2004.
He was responsible for ridding the club of its massive 270 million euros ($319.8 million) of debt by selling it's city-centre training ground for a reported 480 million euros soon after he came to power.
GALACTICO POLICY
However he will be best remembered for his "Galacticos" policy which brought in a string of world-class players, such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham and helped make Real the most glamorous football club in the world.
The policy also acted as the springboard which allowed Real to become a global leader in the marketing stakes and overtake Manchester United as the richest football club in the world.
On the sporting side Perez met with early success, with the club winning the Champions League in 2002 and the league title in 2001 and 2003.
But the team's fortunes suffered a decisive downturn after Perez decided to discard Vicente del Bosque as coach the day after they won the league title and shortly after England captain David Beckham was signed.
Real have got through five coaches since then, but have not managed to win any major silverware.
If they fail to win anything this season it will be the first time in 52 years that they have gone three consecutive seasons without winning a significant trophy.
Real were knocked out of the King's Cup by Real Zaragoza earlier this month after suffering a humiliating 6-1 defeat in the first leg and have an uphill task to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League after losing 1-0 at home to Arsenal.
RIFTS IN SQUAD
Sunday's league defeat at Mallorca left them 10 points behind arch-rivals Barcelona with 13 games left to play.
Perez made it clear that his decision to quit was not only down to poor results, but also due to the attitude of the players and the rifts that were emerging in the squad.
"I think we have played some spectacular football in these years, but maybe some of the players may have begun to get confused and I may have contributed to that confusion.
"The club needs a profound renewal and I think that someone else will be a more appropriate figure to oversee that process."
Perez said he was in agreement with defender Sergio Ramos's comments about the lack of team spirit at the club after the 19-year-old complained about his team mates' lukewarm celebration when he scored the opening goal against Mallorca.
"Sergio Ramos was right in what he said and I would like to see our players celebrate goals in the same way that Mallorca celebrated their goals," said Perez.
Ramos's remarks came less than a week after Real Madrid captain Raul publicly reprimanded Brazilian striker Ronaldo for his criticisms of the club's fans on the eve of their Champions League match against Arsenal.
