Twelve founder members of the breakaway competition confirmed that they had signed up to the Super League on Sunday evening, but 48 hours later, the Big Six Premier League clubs had announced their withdrawals from the tournament.
Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and AC Milan followed suit the next day, but Perez has affirmed that the Super League is simply on “standby” despite condemnation from all corners of the game.
Speaking to El Larguero, Perez said: “If anyone thinks the Super League is dead, are they wrong? Absolutely.
“We’re going to keep working and what everyone thinks is for the best will emerge. The project is on standby. The Super League still exists.”
Perez has also claimed that without a European Super League, it would be “impossible” to sign Kylian Mbappe or Erling Braut Haaland this summer.
ESL contract leaks show unbelievable hypocrisy from Real Madrid President Florentino Perez
Many mistakes were made by those trying to launch the European Super League, but allowing Real Madrid President Florentino Perez to speak publicly was one of the biggest.
The problem is that Real are anything but fine just now, and it’s clear that financial greed and desperation were behind the scheme as recent reports show their debt figure topped the €900m mark.
One of the most galling things about this scheme was the absolute hypocrisy that was shown from Perez, from trying to say every team would benefit from this as more money will be spent on transfers to claiming that the new hyper-competitive league would “save football”.
Recent leaks show some of the financial details of the proposal, and it appears that Real Madrid were one of the teams who would receive more than others in this new league:
Excerpts from the #SuperLeague contract: Barca & Real were set to receive additional 60m€ each. Inter, Milan, Dortmund & Atlético were supposed to receive less than everyone else. Clubs were to exclusively broadcast live games. More:https://t.co/JvYuURviFD @derspiegel @Rafanelli pic.twitter.com/9v9lM6HlQq
— Christoph Winterbach (@derWinterbach) April 23, 2021
It’s an absolute farce to claim that this would benefit football if the new league wasn’t even going to start with a level playing field for the teams involved, so of course it continues to show that it was always about money and any claims about added competition were a nonsense.
Florentino Perez claims ‘one of the Manchester clubs’ conspired to take down European Super League
Perez, who would’ve been the chairman of the Super League, was quick to attack the English clubs who broke away from the league – claiming that one of the two Manchester club’s was at the heart of it’s downfall.
👔⚽️ Florentino Pérez, EN DIRECTO, en @ellarguero
🗣️ “Había alguien entre los seis equipos ingleses que no tenía mucho interés en la Superliga y eso empezó a contagiar a los otros. Es un equipo que no estuvo convencido nunca”
📲#FlorentinoConManuhttps://t.co/Z6QjFSdgXh
— El Larguero (@ellarguero) April 21, 2021
“Manchester owners started a manipulation campaign saying we were going to end the national leagues and [the European Super League] didn’t reward sporting merits,” said Perez in speaking to El Larguero.
Many believe that club to be Manchester City, as reports have suggested that the Etihad club was reluctant to join the league from the start, as well as the first to officially pull out – the latest information from Sid Lowe of the Guardian aligns itself with this belief.
