Real Madrid president Florentino Perez says “the Super League continues” and “nothing has failed” as the three clubs who maintain their support for the project — Los Blancos, Barcelona and Juventus — await a European court ruling on the competition’s future.
UEFA’s disciplinary proceedings against the three rebel clubs have been put on hold after a judge in Madrid issued a preliminary injunction based on EU competition law, which has since been passed onto the European Court of Justice.
The nine clubs who have disowned the plans — six from the Premier League, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan — have already apologised and accepted fines from UEFA.
“We are calm, because of what we have, we have won,” Super League president Perez told El Transistor. “The English teams were coerced.
“They signed something they shouldn’t have signed, because they are committed to the Super League. They wanted to punish them, and the courts have said no.
“There is a binding contract and no one can leave. The Super League continues. We went to the judge who made a ruling and said the Super League cannot be touched. UEFA cannot do anything to the people or the clubs. It’s stopped. Now the court in Luxembourg must decide.”
Perez has been the proposed breakaway league’s most vocal advocate since its attempted launch in April.
“We have been working on this for two years,” he said on Thursday. “It’s a format to prevent football, which is losing interest, from dying.
“We are not excluding anyone, but everyone can’t be there. A Roma-Sampdoria has less interest than a Manchester [United]-Paris Saint-Germain. The fans are in charge here.”
In a wide-ranging, 90-minute late-night radio interview, Perez was also questioned on the departures of Zinedine Zidane and Sergio Ramos, the futures of Gareth Bale and Raphael Varane, and the club’s interest in Kylian Mbappe.
“It didn’t surprise me,” he said, when asked about Zidane’s resignation last month. “It was one of the possibilities.
“I spent all afternoon trying to convince him. I haven’t read [the resignation letter published in Diario AS.] They told me it was bad. He didn’t write it, that isn’t Zidane. Someone wrote it for him.”
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