Chronicle Editor
Florentino Pérez, president of Spanish LaLiga football club Real Madrid and founding chairman of the European Super League, has maintained the controversial breakaway competition remains “on stand-by”, hinting that a single Premier League club triggered the exit of all six English teams.
Pérez was speaking in the wake of a dramatic 24 hours which seemingly doomed the fledgling project. Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, one of the chief architects of the ESL, on Wednesday said the competition can no longer go ahead with nine clubs having withdrawn their support.
The six Premier League clubs involved in the plot – Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham – declared their intention to withdraw from the ESL. They were joined yesterday by Real Madrid’s LaLiga rival Atlético Madrid, as well as Serie A duo Inter Milan and AC Milan.
That leaves Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus as the only remaining members of the breakaway group. Speaking to the El Larguero programme on Spanish radio broadcaster Cadena Ser, Pérez stated yesterday evening: “The project is on stand-by. The project exists, but half of them have left, tired of what they have heard over the past 24 hours, saying they don’t want to continue.”
Earlier this week, Pérez said the proposed breakaway competition is a necessity as “all clubs will die” under the Uefa Champions League revenue model. Pérez, who was last week re-elected unopposedfor a fifth consecutive term as Real Madrid president and is a long-time backer of a Super League project, was the first leader from the 12 ESL member clubs to speak openly on the proposals.
The ESL plan would involve 20 clubs each season, with five qualifiers per season joining the 15 permanent members. Matches would be played midweek so that all clubs could continue to play in their domestic leagues.
Pérez admitted that the project would have to change, outlining a new model with four teams that could instead qualify from each country. “We will keep working and talking to everyone,” he said. “We are open to whatever is best for football.”
Pérez said he was surprised at the ferocity of the response to the ESL, particularly from Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin and LaLiga president Javier Tebas. He continued: “I’ve never seen aggression greater than that from the president of Uefa and the president of LaLiga, it was orchestrated and surprised us all. I’ve never seen anything like it. Insults, threats, as if we’d killed someone, or killed football.
“There was someone out of the six English clubs who didn’t have much interest. That started to impact the others, and there was fear. One of the English clubs was never really convinced.
“Juventus and Milan haven’t left. Barcelona is thinking about it. We could change, so the top four of England and Spain can enter. We’re working to save football after the pandemic. (Real) Madrid’s income has fallen from €900m ($1.08bn) to €600m this year. We’ve worked very hard on something that would satisfy everyone and didn’t expect such a response.” – Sport Business
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