Madrid, April 20: Florentino Pérez, the founding chairman of the Super League, on Tuesday said the new competition is being created to save soccer for everyone, not to make the rich clubs richer.
The president of Real Madrid, one of the 12 clubs behind the breakaway competition that would compete with the Champions League, said it’s “impossible” that players from the participating teams will be banned by UEFA.
Although he said the new league likely won’t start next season if no deal is reached with European soccer’s governing body.
He didn’t completely rule out the possibility that the new league won’t get started at all, but indicated that the clubs were prepared to go all the way to make it happen.
Pérez, the first of the club presidents to speak publicly after the proposed new league was announced on Sunday, said clubs were “ruined” financially by the coronavirus pandemic and the Super League was the solution to “save soccer in a critical moment.”
“We are all going through a very difficult situation,” Pérez said in an interview broadcast after midnight on the Spanish television program El Chiringuito de Jugones. “When you don’t have revenue, the only way to change that is to try to have more competitive games, more attractive games.”
“Soccer has to evolve, just like businesses have to evolve and everyone has to evolve,” he added. “Soccer has to adapt. We felt that we needed to change something to help make soccer more attractive.”
Pérez said the new Champions League format proposed by UEFA for 2024 won’t produce enough revenue to help save the sport. “With the way the revenues are now in the Champions League, all clubs will die,” Pérez said.
“The big ones, the medium ones and the small ones. By 2024, when this new format is supposed to begin, the clubs will all be gone,” he added. He said the greater revenue brought in by the bigger clubs in a competition like the Super League would benefit the soccer industry in general.
“This is what is profitable, and this money will end up reaching everyone,” Pérez said, noting that the big clubs are the ones that will keep buying players and will have the solidarity to keep helping everyone in soccer.
UEFA urges Super League owners to reverse decision
In a direct appeal to the owners of the English clubs in the Super League project, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin urged them Tuesday to change their minds out of respect for soccer fans.
Ceferin both cajoled and criticized the six-club English group — made up of American billionaires, Middle East royalty and a Russian oligarch — less than 48 hours after the Super League was launched in alliance with three clubs from each of Italy and Spain.
“Gentlemen, you made a huge mistake,” Ceferin said in a speech to European soccer leaders at the UEFA annual meeting. “Some will say it is greed, others (will say) disdain arrogance, flippancy or complete ignorance of England’s football culture. It does not matter. “What does matter is that there is still time to change your mind. Everyone makes mistakes.”
Ceferin urged them to turn back out of respect for fans in England, aiming another barb at what he earlier called “a few selfish people.”
“Come to your senses,” he said. “Not out of love for football because I imagine some of you don’t have much of that.” Ceferin praised Nasser al-Khelaifi, the president of French champion Paris Saint-Germain for opting out of the league.
Earlier Tuesday in a speech that seemed to blame the club owners and absolve players, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said he can only “strongly disapprove” of the Super League.
“If some elect to go their own way, then they must live with the consequences of their choice,” Infantino said.
The Spanish Football League (La Liga) and the Spanish Football Federation have also confirmed their opposition to the league. (AP)
