‘This is what is profitable’: Florentino Perez says Super League created to save lots of soccer
Florentino Pérez, the founding chairman of the Super League, on Tuesday mentioned the brand new competitors is being created to save lots of soccer for everybody, to not make the wealthy golf equipment richer.
The president of Real Madrid, one of many 12 golf equipment behind the breakaway competitors that may compete with the Champions League, mentioned there was a marketing campaign by those that would “lose their privileges” due to the Super League to make make the idea look unhealthy.
“We have to explain to everyone that this is not a league for the rich clubs,” Pérez mentioned in an interview broadcast after midnight on the Spanish tv program El Chiringuito de Jugones. “It’s a league to save all the clubs. Otherwise, soccer will die.”
He downplayed UEFA’s risk to ban gamers of the taking part groups from the European Championship and subsequent 12 months’s World Cup.
“They can be assured that this won’t happen,” Pérez mentioned. “It’s not going to happen. We won’t get into the legal aspects of it, but it won’t happen. It’s impossible.”
He mentioned the brand new league probably gained’t begin subsequent season if no deal is reached with European soccer’s governing physique. He additionally didn’t utterly rule out the likelihood that the brand new league gained’t get began in any respect, however indicated that the golf equipment have been ready to go all the way in which to make it occur.
Pérez, the primary of the membership presidents to talk publicly in an interview after the proposed league was introduced on Sunday, mentioned golf equipment have been “ruined” financially by the coronavirus pandemic and the Super League was the answer to “save soccer in a critical moment.”
“We are all going through a very difficult situation,” Pérez mentioned. “When you don’t have income, the one solution to change that’s to attempt to have extra aggressive video games, extra engaging video 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 mentioned the brand new Champions League format proposed by UEFA for 2024 gained’t produce sufficient income to assist save the game.
“With the way the revenues are now in the Champions League, all clubs will die,” Pérez mentioned. “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.”
The Super League proponents argue that the better income introduced in by the larger golf equipment in a brand new competitors would profit the soccer trade usually.
“This is what is profitable,” Pérez mentioned, “and this money will end up reaching everyone.”
The proposal of the brand new competitors attracted widespread criticism, with leagues, golf equipment, gamers, governments and fan teams
But fan teams, leagues and governments throughout the continent and the sport’s European institution have already begun pushing again, some condemning the insurgent golf equipment for what they take into account to be a self-serving transfer that may solely profit an elite group.
Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European soccer’s governing physique, UEFA, likened the proposal to “spitting in football fans’ faces” and with backing from FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing physique, warned that gamers on Super League groups is perhaps barred from the World Cup.
Pérez responded by calling for extra “transparency” at UEFA and saying the entity wants to vary. He criticized Ceferin for his “insults” and “threats” towards the Super League golf equipment. Ceferin on Monday referred to as Juventus president Andrea Agnelli “a snake.”
“This has to change, UEFA can’t be like that,” Pérez mentioned. “We don’t want a president who insults the president of a club. This has to change for the good of society and for the good of soccer.”
He mentioned the Super League “is not a closed league” and that’s he’s prepared to work with UEFA, particularly on the factors for the 5 rotating spots open to different golf equipment within the Super League. He mentioned there was “no reason” for the European governing physique to be upset.