The Real Madrid president said that the 12 founding clubs are still under contract with the European Premier Soccer League (ESL), which means that the members, although most of them have already said so, cannot leave the company. Florentino Perez, who is also the Premier League captain, told the Spanish sports daily AS after the initiative announced on Monday came under widespread attack and that of the 12 founding teams, in principle, only Real Madrid and Barcelona are members.
“The thing is, the clubs cannot withdraw,” Perez said. he added:
Some of them, of course, had to say so under pressure, but this project or something very similar to it would pay off. I hope so in the near future.
The creation of the European Premier League, scheduled for twenty teams, has been announced from Sunday to Monday. The founders include six English clubs, and three Italian and Spanish clubs. The plan was met with widespread opposition from high-ranking political and sports circles, both internationally (FIFA) and the European Union (UEFA). Fan groups also sharply criticized the planned series.
For the first time since then, Manchester City announced on Tuesday evening that it was resigning from its cast. At dawn on Wednesday, Chelsea, then Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur backed away from the initiative. On Wednesday afternoon, with the resignation of Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan and Juventus and AC Milan announcing uncertainty about the future of the league, only two clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, remain official members of the Premier League, and it is set to have 15 permanent participants.
Perez, 74, also denied that US investment bank JP Morgan, ready to support the league with 3.5 billion euros, would have backed away from the project:
It’s not true, they didn’t leave either. They were asked time to respond like the 12 clubs.
The sports director added:
If there is a need to change, then we will.
It is believed that either this series will be created or the clubs will be destroyed.
The federations will revolt because only the clubs that are financed by the state will survive, or those that have millions of dollars who entertain themselves, and it will not be a problem for them to lose hundreds of millions of euros in one season.
