The president of Real Madrid Florentino Perez has insisted that the controversial European Super League is not dead even though most of the clubs that signed up for it withdrew on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Florentino Perez was supposed to be the first chairman of the European Super League if the league had gone ahead as planned. However, the official announcement of the league last weekend was greeted with criticism.
Recall that on Sunday, April 18, twelve clubs confirmed their participation in the European Super League. The 12 clubs are Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Afterward, the world football governing body, FIFA, European football governing body, UEFA, domestic football associations, fans, pundits, and football administrators condemned the plan using both mainstream and online media.
Due to the pressure on the teams that signed up for the Super League, 6 of the teams from the Premier League – Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, and Liverpool, withdrew from the project on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, April 21, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, and Inter Milan also withdrew from the controversial European Super League which signaled the end of the project.
Even though the clubs declared their regrets for joining the controversial league, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez revealed that the plan for the introduction of the league is still alive.
The European Super League can no longer proceed, Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli told Reuters as Spain's Atletico Madrid, Italy's Inter Milan, and six English teams abandoned the breakaway soccer competition after intense criticism. Read more here: https://t.co/JXeRSkXnlZ pic.twitter.com/5r4l2AopFC
— Reuters Sports (@ReutersSports) April 21, 2021
In reaction to the 6 Premier League clubs that withdrew from the plan, Perez revealed that one of the six clubs was never convinced about the idea behind the league. He, therefore, claimed that the club that was not convinced about the league became contagious to other clubs.
“If anyone thinks the Super League is dead, are they wrong? Absolutely”, the Real Madrid president told the Spanish radio show El Larguero.
“I’m a bit sad and disappointed because we’ve been working on this project for three years,” he said. “There was someone in the group of six English teams who weren’t that interested and I think that started to become contagious among the others.
“There are people of a certain age involved and maybe they were scared because they didn’t understand anything that was going on. We all signed a binding contract, but I don’t think that one of them was ever convinced.
“In the end, there was an onslaught from the leagues, and the Premier League got fired up, so they said, ‘we’ll leave it for now.”
