European Super League will ‘save football at critical moment’, claims president Florentino Perez

The Real Madrid president, who will also serve as the president of the breakaway competition, insists the league’s formation stems from the sport’s current financial difficulties

Florentino Perez has defended the pursuit of a European Super League as necessary to “save football” during a “critical moment”.

The Spaniard’s comments come amid 12 leading European clubs committing to joining a new competition that will begin “as soon as is practicable”.

And Perez, who was appointed as president of the newly-formed competition, defended the pursuit of a breakaway competition due to financial difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“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,” Perez told El Chiringuito.

“Football needs to change to be more attractive globally. Instead of making the Champions League because it lost interest as it had in 1950, change comes and even at the time Fifa and Uefa were against it. But that’s how football changed.

“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. We wanted to do the Super League, the pandemic has given us urgency: now we are all ruined in football.

“Here at Real Madrid we’ve 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 the clubs financially.

“Many important clubs in Spain, Italy and UK want to find a solution to a very bad financial situation. The only way is to play more competitive games. If instead of playing the Champions League, Super League helps the clubs to recover the lost earnings.”