It was clear that there was a lot of money being thrown at the idea of the ESL, but they made a huge mistake in allowing Real Madrid President Florentino Perez to speak openly about the reasons behind it.
He made it abundantly clear that this was all about the money as Real Madrid are in a financial mess – something that he has overseen, and that’s the main thing that they were trying to steer the attention away from.
They attempted to present it as a competition where Europe’s elite would play in box office clash after box office clash, although that was also on thin ice when they asked Spurs, AC Milan and Arsenal to be involved when you consider their lack of achievements in recent years.
He then tried to suggest this was for the 16-24 year olds because they seemingly have such tiny minds that they just can’t enjoy the game in it’s current format, so perhaps we should also shorten the games for them as well.
The prospect of the ESL has fallen apart this evening with clubs withdrawing so Perez has been left looking like one almighty clown, and there are now calls for him to leave his post:
Ed Woodward has already gone and there are suggestions that more will follow, so hopefully we get these money-grabbing fools out of the game and find a way to actually return to a competitive and exciting structure.
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