Surprise .. Real Madrid president confirms the return of the European Super League

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez says that the 12 teams that have signed the announcement of the launch of the new UEFA Super League cannot withdraw from the tournament because the tournament contract is binding and has promised to return the controversial league again at a later time.

Peres was one of the central figures in launching the project last Sunday, before the plan collapsed within days after the withdrawal of all six participating English clubs and then the withdrawal of other teams after that.

Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona have not withdrawn from the plan yet.

"There is no need to explain the meaning of the binding contract, but these clubs have no right to withdraw," the Spanish sports newspaper S Sport quoted Perez as saying on Saturday.

"Some of these clubs, due to pressure, announced their withdrawal. But this project or another very similar project will go ahead and I hope that this will happen very soon."

The new project took a fresh hit on Friday when GBMorgan, which has provided 3.5 billion euros ($ 4.2 billion) to fund the project, said it regretted supporting the clubs that announced the launch of the league.

"We definitely misjudged the reaction to the plan," a bank representative said.

But Perez maintains that the bank continues to support the plan.

Perez also said, "It is not true that he withdrew, but rather retreated for a while to think like 12 clubs. If we have to make changes then we will, but the Super League is the best project we came up with."

"The partnership is still going on and so are the members in the Super League. What happened was to take a few weeks away to think in light of the anger emanating from some people who want to preserve their interests," he added.

Perez stressed the need for a new tournament to help clubs compensate for their financial losses due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that the founding clubs reached their total losses last year of 650 million euros, and that their losses this year are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros.

Perez indicated that he is not satisfied with the plan to reform the Champions League, through which the European Union (UEFA) aims to expand the tournament to include 36 teams, starting from 2024.

"The Super League is the best possible project to help football out of the crisis," Perez said. "Football has been seriously damaged and we have to adapt to this era we are going through."

"I think reforming the Champions League is not the best solution. Also, we cannot wait until 2024."

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