Super League needed to save 'sick' European football, claims Real Madrid president
Robin Bairner
- 3 Oct 2022 14:32 BST
- 3 min read
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez continues to campaign for a European Super League, claiming that football is “sick”.
Madrid have been one of the most vigorous supporters of the project, which was launched in earnest in April 2021 only to be quickly canned as fans across Europe campaigned against the idea.
Now Los Blancos along with Barcelona and Juventus are the only three clubs still open to the controversial idea, which also included teams from the Premier League as well as other major clubs from Italy and Spain.
Perez, though, says that reviving the idea is necessary because of what he describes as the dwindling popularity of the game.
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“Our beloved sport is sick, especially in Europe, and, of course, in Spain,” Perez claimed. “Football is losing its position as the world’s leading global sport. There is abundant data and objective parameters that confirm this situation.
“The most worrying fact is that young people are becoming less and less interested in football.
“The current competitions, as they are designed today, do not attract spectators’ interest, except in the final stages.
“We believe that midweek European competitions should change to be able to offer fans matches throughout the year, at the highest level, between the strongest teams and with the best players in the world competing against each other.
“If we look at the legends of tennis, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played each other 40 times in 15 years. So far, Nadal and Novak Djokovic have faced each other 59 times in 16 years. Is this boring?
“If we look at the last Champions League finalists, Liverpool, a historic team with six European Cups, it turns out that we have played them only nine times in 67 years.”
Champions League surpassed by NFL
Perez claimed that the TV rights for the Champions League had bee surpassed by the NFL.
“They must be doing something very well in the United States, and we must be doing something very badly in Europe,” he added.
“Football used to be the top sport; now it has been widely overtaken by American sport. The facts are undeniable.”
The cash-strapped trio of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are thought to have been continuing their Super League talks behind closed doors and this will not be the last we hear from Perez on the subject.
Read more about: La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League, Barcelona, Juventus, Real Madrid
