The Super League Would Save The Dying Game Of Football.... Florentino Perez Insist.

Florentino Peréz has insisted that the formation of the European Super League, would save the game of football at this critical moment.

The Chairman of the ESL Perez, has held a press conference for the first time today concerning the formation of the European Super league on Sunday. 

According to sources, 12 leading European clubs committed to join a new tournament that will begin as soon as is practicable.

Real Madrid alongside La Liga rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, as well as Premier League clubs Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Italian clubs AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus all signed to be part of the ESL, and the contract is binding, there is no going back. 

Another three clubs are expected be included as guaranteed members and five others will qualify to join them each year.

The move of the ESL has plunged the game of football into turmoil and triggered widespread condemnation across both sport and society, but Perez brushed off the criticism and played up the prospect of more big games.

The Spaniard Peréz speaking during the extensive press conference on Spanish TV show El Chiringuito de Jugones said;

"Whenever there is a change, there are always people who oppose it. We are doing this to save football at this critical moment.

"Football must evolve like everything in life. Football has to adapt to the times we live in now. Football is losing interest, TV rights are decreasing. 

"Football is going through a very tough situation, it is ruined due to the pandemic, and the Super League will save the clubs financially.

"Top clubs in Spain and England are coming to conclusions about fixing football. Madrid alone lost €400 million this season, nothing was being done about that.

"The attractive thing in football is playing between big clubs,  the value for television increases and more income is generated. It's not a league for the rich, we're doing it to save football because it's at a critical moment.

"It would be better for everyone, if we have more money because we big clubs will make more money and also distribute it to others, we would be able to sign players from smaller clubs and help them too.

Peréz assured that everything concerning football will be improved with the super league, and that the expanded Champions League announced by UEFA on Monday was not the answer.

"If UEFA and FIFA was t yo wait until 2024 to reform the UCL, then congratulations to them, we will not wait.

"We came to the conclusion that having the Super League instead of the Champions League, we could help alleviate the lost income from the pandemic.” 

"Without the Super League, football will DIE before 2024. Big and small clubs will die.

"That new UCL  format will NOT save football. I don't understand it, it won't help anything." 

"The UCL is attractive only from the quarter-finals. Nobody cares about the games before.

16-24 year old fans aren't interested in football they have other platforms on which to distract themselves."  40% of young people are no longer interested in football, because there are too many games of low quality. And we had to adapt by all means.” 

The Real Madrid president Peréz went further to accuse UEFA of not been transparent, and also opposing the threat of  UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, who earlier in the day had said players featuring in the competition will be banned from the World Cup and all UEFA competitions.

"No one knows how much the UEFA president earns and which is not meant to be, football needs transparency;

"Why aren't UEFA and La Liga salaries public? Why haven't salaries been reduced like everyone else during the pandemic? We need more transparency. 

"We know the salary of LeBron James but we don’t know the salary of the UEFA president.” 

"Our players will NOT be banned from the World Cup. I guarantee it. They can be 100% certain of it.

"Kicking us out from this season's #UCL ? Absolutely not. I guarantee it at a 100%.

"UEFA’s monopoly is over. It’s time for a new era.” 

"We are going to convince all parties, and have a talk with UEFA and FIFA about this and hopefully they should understand it from the economic point, If we reach an agreement with UEFA we want to start (the new league) in August, if not, we can wait a year."