Florentino Perez: All Clubs Will Die Without Super League

[RealGM Wiretap]

Florentino Perez has said he\'s \"completely sure\" Real Madrid and other Super League participants won\'t be thrown out of this season\'s Champions League over their role in the proposed breakaway group.

Perez is one of the driving forces behind the Super League and has been named as its chairman.

\"The Champions League is attractive from the quarterfinals, that\'s all,\" he told late-night Spanish talk show El Chiringuito. \"We play against small teams that aren\'t attractive. Young people prefer to entertain themselves with other things. But if we do it all season, five games on Tuesday, five on Wednesday, that would be unstoppable.

\"What would bring in money is the 15 clubs playing each other every week. That\'s the greatest show in the world, there\'s nothing like it,\" he added. \"A Real Madrid-Manchester [United] or a Barcelona-Milan is more attractive than Manchester [United] against a small club.

\"What does the world demand? We have fans in Singapore, in China, all around the world, you see that on social media, the followers they have. That\'s what brings in money.\"

The competition is intended as a replacement for the Champions League. 

\"Today, with the income from the Champions League as it is, we\'ll die,\" Perez said, stressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. \"Less audience, less money. We\'ll all die, the big clubs, the medium-size clubs, the small clubs. They say the new Champions League format will come in by 2024, we\'ll be dead by then.\"

Via Alex Kirkland/ESPN

[Message Boar]

The snake finally shows his true face, along with Andrea Agnelli of Juventus. Those two, along with the Glazers of Manchester United are apparently the main masterminds behind this monstrosity of greed. The same people that recently leveraged the UEFA to give their competitions 4 guaranteed spots in the "Champion's" League have now decided that, 'nope, that's not quite enough, we need even more money, and we want it guaranteed every year, no matter what'. Of course -ironically- the UEFA has been creating the circumstances for this monster to emerge for years, by pandering to the richest and biggest clubs. It's only now that their own project (the Champion's League) is threatened that all of a sudden they are on the side of merit, competitiveness and an "equal playing field".

That being said, for all it's faults, I approve of the UEFA, FIFA and other governing bodies stepping in here and doing whatever they can to make sure this monstrosity never sees the light of day, certainly not in any form close to the one that's been "proposed". It goes against everything that football in Europe stands for. The fans almost unanimously don't want it, the players don't want it, the coaches and other employees of the clubs don't want it. The only ones that want it are the greedy, morally corrupt owners/chairmen of the teams involved. Because money. Money that they, especially the "southern" teams, claim to desperately NEED. But this is only because THEY decided that it was fine to pay exorbitant figures in transfer fees and salaries to build star-studded rosters. THEY decided to plunge themselves into massive debts with their fiscally unsound decisions and worry about the money later, as opposed to teams like Bayern München who don't spend money they don't have and publicize their financial bookkeeping yearly. And now -perhaps accelerated by the pandemic- these teams are willing sacrifice European football as we know it at the altar of their greed.

As for the "northern" teams, i.e. the 6 English teams, It seems like more of a case of foreign owners (mostly American, but also Russian and Middle-Eastern) who want to make sure their toys get to play each other in their own closed league (and also $$$) every year, no matter how poorly they run them. They want an American-style league catered to American and Asian tv audiences, and are fine completely disregarding wishes of the die-hard local fans that bleed red, blue or white. Funnily, only 2 of the 6 English insurgent teams are currently in position to play European football at the highest level next season. These teams, for whatever reason, think they themselves should have the right to decide who gets to participate in this ostensibly lucrative, walled-off, elitist league. But at the same time they wish to stay within the normal national and international infrastructure and "compete" with teams that don't have access to $300 million on a yearly basis. It is this unfairness and disgraceful, shameful moral corruption that has caused the football-loving community to immediately revolt against this "super" league . To at least save some semblance of the sporting traditions that we love in the face of the ever-growing power of money and the elite.

[donemilio21]

The snake finally shows his true face, along with Andrea Agnelli of Juventus. Those two, along with the Glazers of Manchester United are apparently the main masterminds behind this monstrosity of greed. The same people that recently leveraged the UEFA to give their competitions 4 guaranteed spots in the "Champion's" League have now decided that, 'nope, that's not quite enough, we need even more money, and we want it guaranteed every year, no matter what'. Of course -ironically- the UEFA has been creating the circumstances for this monster to emerge for years, by pandering to the richest and biggest clubs. It's only now that their own project (the Champion's League) is threatened that all of a sudden they are on the side of merit, competitiveness and an "equal playing field".

That being said, for all it's faults, I approve of the UEFA, FIFA and other governing bodies stepping in here and doing whatever they can to make sure this monstrosity never sees the light of day, certainly not in any form close to the one that's been "proposed". It goes against everything that football in Europe stands for. The fans almost unanimously don't want it, the players don't want it, the coaches and other employees of the clubs don't want it. The only ones that want it are the greedy, morally corrupt owners/chairmen of the teams involved. Because money. Money that they, especially the "southern" teams, claim to desperately NEED. But this is only because THEY decided that it was fine to pay exorbitant figures in transfer fees and salaries to build star-studded rosters. THEY decided to plunge themselves into massive debts with their fiscally unsound decisions and worry about the money later, as opposed to teams like Bayern München who don't spend money they don't have and publicize their financial bookkeeping yearly. And now -perhaps accelerated by the pandemic- these teams are willing sacrifice European football as we know it at the altar of their greed.

As for the "northern" teams, i.e. the 6 English teams, It seems like more of a case of foreign owners (mostly American, but also Russian and Middle-Eastern) who want to make sure their toys get to play each other in their own closed league (and also $$$) every year, now how matter how poorly they run them. They want an American-style league catered to American and Asian tv audiences, and are fine completely disregarding wishes of the die-hard local fans that bleed red, blue or white. Funnily, only 2 of the 6 English insurgent teams are currently in position to play European football at the highest level next season. These teams, for whatever reason, think they themselves should have the right to decide who gets to participate in this ostensibly lucrative, walled-off, elitist league. But at the same time they wish to stay within the normal national and international infrastructure and "compete" with teams that don't have access to $300 million on a yearly basis. It is this unfairness and disgraceful, shameful moral corruption that has caused the football-loving community to immediately revolt against this "super" league . To at least save some semblance of the sporting traditions that we love in the face of the ever-growing power of money and the elite.

well said