Perez Fronting Latest European Super League Push
Florentino Perez, the big-spending president of Spanish club Real Madrid, has revived the threat of a breakaway league and is pushing hard for Europe’s biggest football clubs to create a European Super League – a scenario that poses a significant threat to the UEFA Champions League.
Perez wants the world’s wealthiest football clubs to create a European Super League, and is ready to take on UEFA if they do not adapt the Champions League to better suit the ambitions of the biggest clubs.
He stated: ‘We have to agree a new European Super League which guarantees that the best always play the best — something that does not happen in the Champions League.’
He indicated that he would push for a breakaway ‘closed shop’ competition but insisted that he does not want to replace domestic competition, just guarantee that clubs such as Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, Milan and Juventus could rely on participating every season in a lucrative elite competition, no matter where they finish in their own domestic leagues.
Since assuming the UEFA presidency, Platini has tried to make the Champions League more open to clubs from outside the traditional elite, notably by introducing an unseeded third qualifying round as of this August.
The last serious move to form a rebel European league, in the late 1990s, was led by Milan at which time UEFA responded by offering more Champions League places to clubs from the stronger domestic competitions, notably Italy, England and Spain.
Perez, who in the first month since returning to the presidency of the nine-time European champions has committed £180m on new players including big-money buys of Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema, has already clashed with European football’s governing body over spending.
