Real Madrid are in chaos after Ramón Calderón bowed to pressure and announced that he had resigned as the club's president after reports that he had rigged the recent general assembly came out.

Marca revealed that a number of non-members were at the meeting to vote through proposals and the scandal has now claimed the man at the top and others look set to follow.

Having denied the allegations earlier in the week, Calderón was cornered by photographic evidence of the vote rigging and put under pressure to go by his fellow directors.

On Thursday evening it was believed that he had told friends and associates that he would resign before reports emerged that he had changed his mind and would hold out to hold elections in the summer.

That is said to have infuriated some directors and many were considering resigning themselves at a board meeting on Friday morning unless Calderón himself told them that he was going.

Despite winning back-to-back league titles in his two full seasons at the helm, the 57-year-old's tenure has been plagued by problems including the manner in which he won the presidency.

Postal votes were not counted and have not been so and that allied with his failed pre-election promises to sign Kakà and Cesc Fàbregas has angered some supporters.

A verbal attack on David Beckham was also not well taken after the England international's decision to join the LA Galaxy and more recently Calderón has been exposed when a former club secretary revealed several embarrassing stories.

Elections at Real Madrid will be planned, but may not take place until after the end of the season with an interim leader, Vicente Boluda, the club's vice president, being installed until then.

Calderón is due to hold a press conference explaining his decision to stand down at 18:00 CET.



http://www.goal.com/en/news/1705/real-madrid/2009/01/16/1063560/breaking-news-calderon-resigns-as-real-madrid-president