Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, demanded respect from Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and of the European Club Association (ECA), to ensure that “we must remind him who he is the real Madrid”. In reference to LaLiga, he criticized the management of television rights and assured that the CVC is “a financial slab”. In addition, he defended the creation of the Super League
“Recently, the president of the ECA said when talking about the Super League that Real Madrid is afraid of competition, we still have to remind him who is the Real Madrid. It is the most successful club in history, it founded FIFA, the European Cup, promoted the necessary reforms for the good of the 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 Superliga will not be an obstacle for a constructive dialogue that addresses football problems that need to be resolved”, assured Florentino Pérez in his speech.
Pérez, who also chairs the Superliga, defended speeding up the way of justice, 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; being the clubs “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, the Spaniard called for changes to be made urgently: “To solve a problem, you have to start recognizing that you have a problem. Soccer is sick, it is losing its leadership, as the numbers confirm; the data that shows that young people are less and less interested, and it must be reversed before it is too late. His 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 viewer’s interest, except in their final phases”.
Florentino made a comparison between a legendary confrontation in tennis, the duel between Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, which transferred to football, it cannot happen 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 matches between Nadal and Federer”.
For the white club’s chief executive, the show that Real Madrid gave in winning the last Champions League, helped return the passion for football to the spectator. “The competition must change and offer games all year round at the highest level, to bring young people back to football. We cannot understand that UEFA increases the number of inconsequential matches in a new model that will only serve to further alienate fans and accelerate the decline of football”, he added.
Along the same lines, he defended: “Only the NFL, with 285 games per season, exceeds the audiovisual income of the Champions League, Europe League and five major European leagues together, with more than 2,000 games per year. There are no excuses, the data does not admit discussion, soccer is clearly losing the battle of entertainment. The diagnosis of the disease is obvious, we need modern management and not old structures from the last century, a quality product that restores passion, a new competition that improves the Champions League”.
In the Super League the format is open, defended its president, with “a potential format with 25% of open seats 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 Florentino revealed, has fallen in the world ranking of clubs in all sports from the lead to thirteenth position. “These are very worrying data. Real Madrid is the first soccer team in a ranking where we were the first in all sports, and now we are surpassed by eight NFL clubs, three NBA and one MLB. There are only three football clubs in the top 20 of Forbes. They are doing something very well in the United States and very badly in old Europe”.
Focusing on the Santander League, Florentino Pérez was critical of the management of television rights. “LaLiga announces the success of 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. The data confirm that today football is worth less than yesterday. The number of subscribers has fallen by 40%, from 4 million to 2.5 and, to compensate, 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.”
Finally, he pointed to the CVC. “Real Madrid’s commitment to football is beyond any 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 clubs to be strengthened and escape from a financial slab”, he sentenced.
You can also read:
285