MADRID, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid president Florentino Perez attempted to explain his club's decision to form part of the proposed European Super League in an appearance on Spanish television show 'El Chiringuito' on Monday night.

Perez is one of the prime movers behind the breakaway tournament, which includes teams such as Liverpool, Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Juventus, and which threatens the futures of both domestic leagues and UEFA competitions.

The move has come in for a hail of criticism, with the Spanish Football League (La Liga) and Football Federation (RFEF) both voicing their opposition and vowing to use every legal means to oppose it, while clubs such as Villarreal, Cadiz, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Valencia have all voiced their opposition.

Perez, who would be the first chairman of the Super League, tried to justify the decision to launch a competition that will have 15 fixed members with no relegation or promotion and just five other sides invited every year, by saying "many important clubs in Spain, Italy and UK want to find a solution to a very bad financial situation. The only way is to play more competitive games."

He defended the decision to try and protect revenue by a small cartel of clubs by saying football "must evolve. Football must adapt to the times."

The man whose club has this season lost home games to Cadiz, Alaves and Shakhtar Donetsk, failed to beat Elche, Getafe and Osasuna, and was knocked out of the Copa del Rey by third-tier Alcoyano added, "the attractive thing in football is playing between big clubs, the value for television increases and more income is generated."

Despite the waves of opposition to the project and the harm it could do to other competitions, he claimed, "It's not just the rich who want the Super League, we're doing it to save football because it's at a critical moment."

Perez said the new tournament would benefit clubs not involved, because "we big clubs will have more money and we will be able to invest it by buying players," without explaining how buying the best players from other clubs will only widen the gap between the rich and the poor, making it harder than ever for other clubs to compete.

Perez also said that the 12 clubs who have so far signed up for the Super League would not be excluded from their domestic or UEFA competitions, and insisted the contract the 12 had signed was binding. Enditem

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