November 13 – Real Madrid president Florentino Perez launched a barrage of attacks on LaLiga and UEFA in his speech to the club’s ordinary general assembly on Saturday.
Perez left no stone unthrown as launched into criticism of UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and LaLiga chief executive Javier Tebas, reiterating his mantra that football needs to have new leadership and that what is needed is a European Super League.
While football in Europe has never been so successful commercially and has bounced back powerfully from the covid interruption, for Perez it is not enough. “Either we react now, or football will not survive,” said Perez.
“Football is going through an unprecedented institutional crisis. (…) European football does not belong to the president of UEFA and Spanish football does not belong to the president of La Liga. The Super League is more necessary than ever,” he claimed.
For Perez the solution to all his problems is the proposed Super League that crashed and burned so spectacularly when it was first mooted as a 12-team breakaway. The backlash against the clubs from their own fans, sports and football fans generally and football’s stakeholders was as equally explosive as the Super League proposal.
It accelerated a UEFA review and the changes that are being made to the Champions League format. Perez said the format will be an “economic disaster” and that he was eagerly waiting for the December 21 verdict from the Court of Justice of the European Union as to the legitimacy of the Super League project.
LaLiga bites back
LaLiga wasted no time responding to Perez’s assault on its integrity, detailing its own list of inaccuracies in the explosive speech delivered by Perez which it said was “riddled with falsehoods and lacking foundation”.
“Multiple accusations have been made that seriously undermine the image and reputation, not only of LaLiga, but also of its clubs, distorting the substance of a number of judicial rulings, which are not final, and deliberately neglecting to mention dozens of rulings against Real Madrid,” said LaLiga’s statement.
LaLiga countered Perez’s accusations that LaLiga acts against the interest of Real Madrid. “The truth is that the leaders of that organisation (RM) have been using it for years to try and push their own interests to the detriment of the national league championship and the rest of the clubs.
“Clear examples of this are the countless legal cases that have been brought against LALIGA since 2016, with various courts and tribunals having dismissed or rejected the appeals and lawsuits, and rebuked Real Madrid for its abusive behaviour.”
there was a lack of transparency in its accounts as “categorically false” and that full information had been “provided to Real Madrid for the approval of its LaLiga annual accounts and settlement of audiovisual rights”. Unlike real Madrid’s lack of transparency, countered LaLiga, “in the improvised and secret announcement of the Super League.”
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