Since its official announcement, the ESL faced heavy criticism from the entire football community and the top-six Premier League clubs involved walked out 48 hours later. Spain’s Atletico Madrid and Italy’s AC Milan, and Inter, have also pulled out shortly.
Real Madrid president and European Super League mastermind Florentino Perez declared that the breakaway tournament is on “standby” after its ‘founding members’ mass withdrawal on Sunday.
“Everyone wants to cut people’s heads off. We have to have a procedure, and we have to see how it looks in the end. These clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans.”
In a radio show on Wednesday, the 74-year-old asserted that the hopes and future of the project are still alive as the twelve members have signed a contract, which includes a penalty on withdrawal.
“You cannot get out of the contract like this – they are binding contracts,”
He then marked out that the league was essential as it was created “to save football”.
Perez then accused UEFA president Alexander Ceferin and other football associations for threatening players with the ban and that the clubs involved in the project worked hard “for around three years”.
“I’ve been in football for 20 years, and I’ve never seen threats like this. It was like we killed someone. It was like we killed football. But we were trying to work out how to save football. The Champions League format is old and only interesting from the quarter-finals onwards.”
Several senior executives of the six Premier League clubs involved in the scandal have been given the boot following the backlash. Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will leave his position at the end of the season while Liverpool chair Tom Werner, a member of the league’s broadcast advisory group, has been shown the door.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and Ferran Soriano, Manchester City chief executive, have all been relieved of their services due to their involvement.
Although former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli acknowledged that the project was dead, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juve themselves are currently the three remaining members of the tournament.
In response to the ESL project, UEFA have announced a revamped 36-team Champions League, starting in 2024, on Monday. The new model has been in hot waters recently as fans questioned the necessity of the complicated first phase of the competition.
According to UEFA, the 36 qualified clubs face ten teams of variant strength in a league format, with the top eight teams qualifying for the later stages. Teams ranked ninth to 24th will be given an opportunity to progress further with two-legged play-offs.
