Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, demanded respect from the president of the Association of European Clubs, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, whom he assured “you have to remind him who Real Madrid is”, defended the creation of the Super League and in reference to LaLiga he was critical of the management of television rights and assured that the CVC is “a financial slab”.
“Recently, the president of the ECA said to talk about the Super League that Real Madrid is afraid of competition, we still have to remind him who Real Madrid is,” Florentino Pérez assured in his speech, referring directly to Al-Khelaïfi.
“It is the most successful club in history, it founded FIFA, the European Cup, promoted the necessary reforms for the good of sport and has the responsibility to protect football as a whole without stopping in the face of obstacles, pressures and threats. The format of the Super League will not be an obstacle to a constructive dialogue that addresses football problems that need to be resolved,” he added.
Florentino Pérez, president of the Super League, defended speeding up the path of justice while waiting for “the Court to resolve a decision that will mark the future of sport.” When it happens, he announced that all the clubs will work “together” to “excite the fans throughout the year, reverse the trend of European football” and “protect football with a debate without pressure”, with the clubs being “free to choose their destination in Europe.
Backed by data that compares the present of soccer with other sports that are growing in the United States, Florentino Pérez called for changes to be made urgently. “To solve a problem, you have to start recognizing that you have a problem. Football is sick, it is losing its leadership as the numbers confirm, the data that shows that young people are less and less interested and we have to reverse it before it becomes late. Their interest is in online platforms, video games, social networks; they demand a quality product that today football does not offer with its competitions. As they are designed, they do not attract the interest of the viewer except in their final phases, “he denounced.
Florentino Pérez made a comparison between a confrontation of tennis legend, the duel between Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, which transferred to the
football cannot be given in a competition like the Champions League.
“The vast majority of sports are organized for the benefit of entertainment, why not football? Tennis legends like Nadal and Federer have played 40 times in 15 years, Nadal and Djokjovic 59 times in 16 years. Is it boring? “Tennis comes out stronger from the clashes between the best. In football, Liverpool, champion of six European Cups, we have only met 9 times in 67 years, only three in Madrid. Against Chelsea only four times in the history of the European Cup. In this way we would only have seen three games between Nadal and Federer,” he defended.
For the white club’s chief executive, “the show” that Real Madrid gave in winning the last Champions League, “helped to return the passion for football to the spectator”, and the competition “must change and offer games all the year at the highest level to bring young people back to football”. Therefore, he was incredulous at the new competition model of the ‘Champions’.
“We cannot understand that UEFA increases the number of inconsequential games in a new model that will only serve to further alienate fans and accelerate the decline of football. Only the NFL, with 285 games per season, exceeds the audiovisual revenue of the Champions , Europa League and five major European leagues together with more than 2000 games per year. There are no excuses, the data does not admit discussion, the
soccer is clearly losing the battle of entertainment. The diagnosis of the disease is obvious, we need modern management and not the old structures of the last century, a quality product that restores passion, a new competition that improves the Champions League”, he defended.
In the Super League the format is open, defended its president, with “a potential format with 25% of open places in a proposal subject to debate in the football family.”
However, he denounced that he received “UEFA threats and insults when the Super League has never been closed.”
Real Madrid, as revealed by Florentino, has fallen in the world ranking of clubs in all sports from the leadership to the thirteenth position. “These are very worrying data. Real Madrid is the first football team in a ranking in which we were the first in all sports and now we are surpassed by eight NFL clubs, three NBA clubs and one baseball club. There are only three football clubs in the top twenty positions of Forbes. They are doing something very well in the United States and very badly in old Europe”.
Focusing on LaLiga, Florentino Pérez was critical of the management carried out in television rights. “LaLiga announces as a success renewing the sale of the rights for five years for the same amount as the previous agreement. It has sold more years than allowed and the figure should be higher in a context of inflation as we are experiencing,” he denounced.
“The data from LaLiga confirm that today’s football is worth less than yesterday. The number of subscribers has fallen by 40%, from 4 million to 2.5, and to compensate for this they raise the price. The strategy is to lose fans along the way and charge more to those who follow. They have turned a product that should be popular into a luxury product.” Lastly, he targeted the CVC.
“Real Madrid’s commitment to football is beyond doubt. Together with Barcelona and Athletic Club, we maintain our opposition in court to the LaLiga project with CVC, which causes damage to Spanish football by mortgaging clubs for more than half a century. There are financial solutions with More advantageous conditions that allow the clubs to be strengthened and escape from a financial slab”.
EFE
