Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has pointed fingers at an unnamed Premier League team, for the collapse of the European Super League plans.
As at Wednesday, eight of the 12 teams that signed up for the breakaway competition from Champions League, announced they were pulling out.
The Premier League’s Big Six teams – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenha, Manchester United and Chelsea – were all involved in the breakaway.
And Perez has revealed that one of them initiated the pull out. He said: “Someone in the English group didn’t have a lot of interest, and that became contagious.
Asked why the English clubs pulled out: “One of them was never convinced… (The English clubs) Because they saw the atmosphere. Uefa turned it into a show. It was as if we had dropped an atomic bomb.
“Maybe we didn’t explain it well but they didn’t give us the chance to. Why? Because they didn’t want us to. I have never seen such aggressiveness; it was orchestrated. They next day they killed us. They were waiting for us. I think they knew we were going to do it. There were threats, insults, as if we had killed football.
“The owners are mostly not English. They’re not in it to make money, they have teams in America, love sport and they found themselves in a position they didn’t expect. They’re old, they got scared,” said Pérez, who is 74.
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Although he had said he wouldn’t mention the club, when he was asked if it was Man City, Pérez said: “The one from Manchester saw the campaign saying this will kill the leagues, that it won’t allow [sporting] merit, that it was the end of football.
“There are people who have privileges and don’t want to lose them, even if it ruins football. When the English called me [on Tuesday], we met to see what we could do. They tried, but said: ‘Look, we’re not going to do this.’ ”
