Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid and new Super League chairman, defended the formation of his new league during an appearance on Spanish television network El Chiringuito late Monday night. The chairman agreed to an exclusive interview to discuss firsthand some of the confusion around the league, and defend his stance on moving forward with the league after extreme criticism across the world. Perez claims the football world needed a solution to the apparent financial issues plaguing the sport, and he believes the Super League will resolve that:
“The major clubs of England, Spain, and Italy have to give a solution to the bad situation that football is experiencing. The only way is to play more competitive games. If instead of playing in the Champions League, Super League helps the clubs to recover the lost earnings.
Here at Real Madrid we have lost a lot of money, we are all going through a very bad situation. When there is no profit, the only way is to play more competitive games during the week. The super league will save clubs financially,".
Perez mentioned many times how the league will "save" football:
"This Super League is not for the rich, but it's to save football. If this continues, football will disappear and by 2024 we would already be dead. This is the only way to save everyone: big, medium and small clubs.
Even in the Premier League, if the top clubs are economically stronger, all the other clubs will also become stronger. It is a consequence. We want to dialogue with UEFA as we proposed in the Super League, we want to save football.
With all due respect, we want to save football. We have to make it so that in the next 20 years no club loses €200 million. The situation is tragic,".
He went on to claim how the current Champions League model was not a sustainable solution for the future:
“Football must evolve like everything in life. Football has to adapt to the times we live in now. Football has lost interest, TV rights are decreasing. We wanted to do the super league, the pandemic has given us urgency: now we are all ruined in football.
Football needs to change more attractive globally. Instead of making the Champions League because it lost interest as he had in 1950, change comes and even at the time FIFA and UEFA were against it. But that’s how football changed…".
Perez went on to discuss how big clubs are the backbone of European football and how football would not exist if it were not for the European giants:
"The attractive thing in football is playing between big clubs, the value for television increases and more income is generated. It's not just the rich who want the Super League, we're doing it to save football because it's at a critical moment.
It will become like a pyramid because we, big clubs, will have more money and we will be able to invest it by buying players... if the big clubs lose their money as is happening, the whole football system crashes as with the Champions League,".
When addressing the criticism for being a "closed league", Perez had this to say about the matter:
"The Super League is NOT a closed league, it's absolutely not true. Whoever wins the five available spots will be able to play with the other best teams in the world.
It's an open league that any good team can reach, regardless of the name,".
FIFA and UEFA have made strong claims that members of the Super League would be banned from their future events, including the ongoing Champions League, here is how Perez addressed those issues:
"Players banned from international competitions and National teams according to UEFA? Don't worry, this will NOT happen. They won't be banned if they join Super League.
Real Madrid and other SuperLeague clubs will NOT be excluded from this 2020/2021 Champions League. It won't happen, the law protects us. This is impossible.
Kicking us out from this season's UCL? Absolutely not. I guarantee it at a 100%.
Our players will NOT be banned from the World Cup. I guarantee it. They can be 100% certain of it,".
The Real Madrid President discussed the commitment from each team to the league and how the clubs have felt about their involvement thus far:
"The contract of the Super League is binding. Nobody can leave, we will work all together. All the clubs signed the contracts last Saturday, there's no problem.
Are any of our clubs panicking and talking of leaving? No, they already signed,".
And here is what he had to say about the clubs not involved yet:
"PSG were NOT invited, as of today. We haven't even spoken to German clubs. We are now 12 clubs, we want to become 15 clubs. If PSG and Bayern Munich refuse, the Super League competition will not be canceled,".
With the apparent bad blood between Perez and UEFA representation, he made sure to fire off some attacks directed at UEFA and the current Champions League structure:
"UEFA is a monopoly but it needs to be more transparent. We want to save football for the next 20 years, it is in a time of serious danger. If you win, you receive €120 to € 130m from UEFA but with Super League we will earn much more.
Manchester-Barca will be more attractive than Manchester vs a smaller team.
The Champions League is attractive only from the quarterfinals. Nobody cares about the games before.
They [UEFA] believe we're their property and they can do whatever they want with us, and they're wrong.
It's RIDICULOUS that the UEFA president can allow himself to insult the president of a huge European club. We don't need these type of people in football. Disrespectful and unacceptable,".
Lastly, Perez went on to explain some expected enhancements to his league that should please players and fans of the sport:
"40% of young people aren't interested in football, because there are too many games of low quality. And we had to adapt.
Everything surrounding football will be improved with the Super League." "VAR? Referees? Everything will change, for the good.
There will be VAR and VAR will be better, and the referees will be better and there will be financial fair play...for football to improve for 100 more years.
We also will hire some of the best referees in the world,".
Florentino Perez went on to speak for over an hour to El Chiringuito to clear the confusion surrounding the league. He said that there would be another interview coming soon to further explain the format of the league and other technicalities he did not address on Monday. The new chairman wanted to use this opportunity as a hype up speech for the league, and he made sure to air his grievances surrounding the current UEFA structure. It appears the European Super League will be moving forward as planned with the 12 current founding clubs having already inked their commitment to the league over the weekend. Only time will tell how the situation with UEFA, FIFA, and domestic leagues falls out in the coming weeks.
