Florentino Pérez on European Super League: "We are doing this to save football"
Real Madrid and ESL president Florentino Pérez believes the controversial European Super League breakaway will actually serve to "save" football.
Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez insists the primary aim of the European Super League is to "save football" after the breakaway competition came in for relentless and vitriolic criticism in the 24 hours after it was announced.
The Super League launched its competition website late on Sunday after a day of speculation, with Pérez named as chairman of the new competition.
Madrid, fellow LaLiga giants Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, the Premier League's 'big six' – Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal – and Juventus, Milan and Inter are all on board, with founding members set to benefit from an initial windfall of €3.5billion.
Nevertheless, Pérez told El Chiringuito TV that he felt there were higher ideals at play than mere greed.
ESL: The solution to the problems facing football
"The biggest clubs in England, Italy and Spain have found a solution to the very difficult situation that football is experiencing," he said.
"Real Madrid in just two season have lost €400m and that's just Real Madrid. When you only have income from television, you understand the solution is to create games that are more competitive and more attractive and that can be seen around the world.
"We decided, in midweek, instead of the Champions League we could have a Super League with more matches.
"Football has to evolve. It is losing interest. We have to think why 16-24 year olds are losing interest. There are bad quality matches and other platforms for entertainment.
"We have to make it more attractive. It is not something for the rich. We do this to save football."
ESL not closed, says Pérez
Perez rejected the criticism that the league was creating a closed shop, due to the intention to allow five teams to enter on "sporting merit" and bring the total number of competitors up to 20, alongside 15 founding clubs.
He also has no concerns over Madrid, their opponents Chelsea and fellow semi-finalists City being expelled from this season's Champions League, nor UEFA and FIFA banning Super League players from taking place in international tournaments.
"Every player can be calm because that's not going to happen," he said.
"Real Madrid will not be kicked out of the Champions League. Nor City, nor anyone else.
"It's not going to happen. I don’t want to get into the legal reasons but it's not going to happen. Legally it's impossible."
Despite the historical animosity between Madrid and Barcelona, Perez said it was easy to convince recently elected Camp Nou president Joan Laporta to take part in the project.
He added: "Games between the big clubs are the most attractive, they generate the most money. I don't think the smaller ones are more attractive.
"There are national competitions people don't even know the name of. Football as it is cannot continue."