Florentino Perez believes all six English clubs withdrew from the Super League after one of them began to get itchy feet over the widely condemned proposals.
The Super League is in tatters just three days after its launch after all six Premier League teams, as well as Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan, pulled out of the plans which would have made Europe’s top competition a ‘closed shop.’
Mass protests from supporters, pundits, players and politicians led to the league’s apparent demise, but Real Madrid president Perez insists it isn’t dead yet and is just on ‘stand-by.’
In another explosive and lengthy interview late on Wednesday night, in which he again failed to sell anyone on the virtue of the Super League, he blamed a sole Premier League club for the project’s embarrassing failure.
Speaking to Spanish radio station El Larguero, as translated by Guillem Balague, Perez said: “Someone in the English group was not that interested and that was contagious, others showed fear and backed off.”
When then asked by the presenter if that club was City, Perez declined to answer before commenting: “They were never interested.”
In an interview in which Perez mostly complained that Madrid will no longer be able to sign the world’s biggest stars, such as Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, he ominously claimed the Super League has not yet been disbanded.
Perez claimed Milan and Juventus are still in the competition despite both clubs having released official statements announcing their withdrawals on Wednesday.
“The European Super League has not dissolved,” he said. “Juventus, Milan, have not left. Barcelona is reflecting on it. We could consider the top four clubs in each league. The target is to have more interesting games.
“The Super League is not dead, we’ll continue working on this project. Now it’s on stand-by.”
