The president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez on Sunday vehemently accused the professional football authorities, UEFA and Fifa, and reaffirmed his support for the Super League, a competition project supposed to compete with the Champions League.
In a speech lasting almost an hour and a half at the opening of the General Assembly of the Spanish giant, the emblematic Madrid president directly accused UEFA and Fifa of prioritizing money over spectacle.
“FIFA has increased the number of international breaks and UEFA has increased the number of matches in its existing tournaments,” accused the leader with the viewfinder. the Club World Cup, a project supported by the world body.
“Ten years ago, it (UEFA) organized 488 matches, today it organizes 760, and all this to make more money. They don’t care about the players. They don’t think that sport must be sustainable,” he said.
The Spanish businessman judges the two entities responsible for the increase in injuries in major championships:
“This season, we will be able to play up to 82 matches! There are 63% more matches organized by UEFA and FIFA: from 22 to 36. There have already been nine cruciate ligament ruptures this season, which is as many that throughout last season, specialists point to fatigue as the main cause. In addition, the matches are getting later and later, which prevents the players from resting,” he complained in front of more. a thousand “socios”.
Florentino Pérez also considered the new format of the Champions League “unfair”, “with more matches, but less value”, estimating that the value of each match had “fallen by almost 30%” and that the solution was the creation of the Super League, supposed to compete with the Champions League and “restore football to its greatness”.
“The Super League’s proposal to offer football for free… Yes, it’s innovative! Today, I am more optimistic than ever. The judgment of the European Court, which is historic and will be studied in the universities, ended the UEFA monopoly. We never said it would be easy. It was titanic, with pressure and threats,” he revealed before being cut off by applause. .
“I have been saying for a long time that football is seriously ill. It has never been in such a delicate situation. All the championships are suffering,” he added, giving the example of Ligue 1, which has gone “d ‘a billion euros to barely 500 million in television rights’.
Champions League
Below is the match program for the 5th day of the Champions League scheduled for this evening:
Wednesday at 6:45 p.m.
Sturm Graz (AUT) – Girona (ESP)
Etoile rouge de Belgrade (SRB) – VfB Stuttgart (GER)
Wednesday at 9:00 p.m.
Bologna (ITA) – Lille (FRA)
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) – Borussia Dortmund (GER)
PSV Eindhoven (NED) – Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
Aston Villa (ENG) – Juventus Turin (ITA)
Celtic Glasgow (SCO) – Club Bruges (BEL)
Liverpool (ENG) – Real Madrid (ESP).
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