Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez Defends Super League Proposal amid Backlash

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

Real Madrid president and Super League chairman Florentino Perez defended the formation of the league during an appearance on Spanish television program El Chiringuito Monday amid growing condemnation around the soccer world.

“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,” he said (h/t soccer reporter Fabrizio Romano). “If instead of playing the [Champions League], Super League helps the clubs to recover the lost earnings.”

Perez said clubs are in financial ruin, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Super League will “save football”:

Perez also refuted the idea that Super League founders currently in the Champions League (Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City) and Europa League (Arsenal, Manchester United) semifinals would not be allowed to finish out those campaigns.

“Impossibile, I can assure that,” he said. “One hundred percent.”

“Real Madrid and other SuperLeague clubs will NOT be excluded from this 2020-21 Champions League,” he added. “It won’t happen, the law protects us. This is impossible.”

That came in response to comments from Jesper Moller, who sits on UEFA’s executive committee and is also the chairman of the Danish Football Union, earlier on Monday.

“[Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea] are going out, and I expect that to happen on Friday,” he told DR Sport on Monday (h/t Mike Goodman of CBS Sports). “And then you have to see how to finish the Champions League.”

Perez also pushed back on threats from UEFA president Alex Ceferin that players on Super League clubs would be banned from participating in international events like the Euros or World Cup. 

“Players banned from international competitions and national teams according to UEFA? Don’t worry, this will not happen,” he said. “They won’t be banned if they join the Super League.”

The Super League officially formed over the weekend with 12 clubs—AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham—serving as founding members and three more clubs set to join as founders. 

Perez said Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich were not invited to join the league and that the Super League won’t be canceled without them.

“This is a bulls–t,” Perez said.

Those 15 clubs would be guaranteed a place every year in the midweek tournament, with another five clubs allowed to join them on a year-by-year basis. In essence, the Super League is set up to replace the Champions League for several of the biggest clubs in the world, which are hoping to avoid the financial uncertainties that accompany the possibility of not qualifying for a berth in the Champions League. 

That clubs are attempting to bypass the merit-based system of UCL qualification is one huge concern for fans and pundits alike. Another is the fear that the giant potential payday of the Super League—JP Morgan is set to be a financial backer, with founding clubs receiving a €3.5 billion windfall simply for joining the competition—will further widen the gap between the financial haves and have-nots of the sport. 

And there is also the concern that the midweek tournament will simply be a trial run for Super League clubs to ultimately separate entirely from their domestic leagues, though Perez pushed back on that notion.

“[United Kingdom Prime Minister] Boris Johnson said he will do everything to cancel the Super League because they explained to him that the Premier League would disappear,” Perez noted. “It’s false, it’s not true. Everything will go back to normal.”

That last point remains extraordinarily debatable within the soccer world. The ramifications of the Super League’s formation could potentially change the landscape of European soccer forever.