When anyone is asked about the villains of the European Super League concept then two names pop up in the minds and they are Andrea Angelli and Florentino Perez, both of whom witnessed the Super League collapse in spectacular fashion.

After experiencing such a disastrous outcome Perez appeared on Spanish Radio where he tried to explain the whole saga.

The interview has been posted in MARCA and here are the excerpts:

“I’m quite sad and disappointed because we’ve been working on this project for around three years and maybe we’ve not been able to explain it well,” he said, speaking on ‘El Larguero’ on Cadena SER.

“The Champions League format is old and only interesting from the quarter-finals onwards.”

“This format clearly doesn’t work, so we thought that we could have a format where the most important teams in Europe play against each other from the very beginning of the season.”

“We worked out the numbers and felt we could make much more money, more money for all the other teams too.”

Asked about the English teams deciding to leave, Perez revealed that there was one particularly reluctant club from the start.

“There was one part of the English group that didn’t have much interest, I won’t say who,” he stated.

“I think this became contagious with the others.”

“These directors are mostly American, maybe from the NFL or NBA.”

“They’re leaving because of the atmosphere.”

“FIFA created a big spectacle. It was as if we had let off an atomic bomb.”

“Maybe we didn’t explain it well, but they also didn’t give us an opportunity to explain it.”

“Some people just didn’t want that.”

“I’ve never seen such aggression from the president of UEFA and some of the countries’ footballing authorities.”

“I’ve been in football for 20 years and I’ve never seen threats like this.”

“It was like we killed someone. It was like we killed football. But, we were trying to work out how to save football.”

Perez even went on to insist that the English teams, the Italian teams and Atletico Madrid haven’t actually removed themselves from the project yet.

“They’re completely wrong,” he said when asked about people who think the Super League is already over.

“I don’t think [the other clubs] have left yet.”

“It’s clear in the contract that you can’t leave.”

“Most people involved are directors who know this world.”

Pressed further on why these teams were selected and on if the closed element of this league is the main stumbling block, he spoke about how the founding members had earned the right to be founding members.

“These teams have earned this,” he said.

“These are the teams that over the last 20 years have earned this.”

“They have the biggest social media followings and the most fans.”

Perez was asked what this means for Real Madrid and why he didn’t consult club members on this.

“Do I have to ask them which players to sign as well?” he responded.

“If we tell Real Madrid fans we’ll play against one of the Manchester teams or Barcelona each week, do you think they’d say ‘no’?”

“Do you not think they’d like everything else staying the same, to play big teams instead of these matches that aren’t interesting until the quarter-finals?”

“There are some matches that I struggle to watch.”

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