Florentino Perez claims football is “sick” as he pushes for changes in European football
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez seems to be pushing for the Uefa super league despite clubs pulling out of the deal.
Florentino Perez has been a leading figure in calls for changes in Europe’s elite football clubs to secede from Uefa competitions in recent years.
“To fix a prpresidentu have to first recognise that you have a problem, ” Perez said at the club’s AGM on Sunday. “Our sport is sick. It is losing its leadership as a global sport.
“We mustn’t be confused by the impact of Real Madrid’s European Cup run when we were involved in seven games of the highest intensity and interest.
“That was the result of the draw, and of the quality and greatness of our team. It was a spectacle that helped bring excitement back to the viewers.
“That’s why we believe European competitions must change, to offer fans top-level games year-round between the strongest teams, with the best players competing.”
“In tennis, Nadal and Federer have played 40 times in 15 years. Nadal and Djokovic have played 59 matches in 16 years,” Florentino Perez added, quoted by ESPN.
“In football, we’ve only played Liverpool nine times in 67 years. We’ve played Chelsea four times in the history of the European Cup. What sense does it make to deprive fans of all these games?”
“We were top in all sports, and now we’ve fallen to 13th,” he said. “We’ve been overtaken by 12 clubs from American sports. They must be doing something very well in the United States and very badly in Europe.
“Football is losing the global entertainment battle against other sports and other platforms.
“We need a professional, modern, transparent management, not based on old structures designed in the last century.
“Recently the chairman of the European Clubs’ Association [Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi] said – talking about the Super League – that Real Madrid are afraid of the competition. Maybe the president of the ECA has to be reminded who Real Madrid are. Competition is in our DNA.”
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