The president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has spoken about the Superliga in an interview with Sonora in which he is in favor of a competition based on meritocracy and always respecting the leagues of each country. “Playing the big clubs always between us, it would tire us”, assures the president who defends that the Super League as “an improved Champions League” and the “most attractive competition in the world”.
Laporta has defended that the project was very advanced when he joined it and that in his opinion, this competition should be based on sporting merits: “I have entered the Super League as Barça's representative with everything already quite advanced. My criteria was, 'leave you from a closed league, we have to make an open Super League, that there is meritocracy'".
Along these lines, the Barça president believes that a competition in which the same players would always face each other would not be attractive: “I think that playing the big clubs against each other would always tire us. I would end up getting tired. Those of us who like football would end up getting tired of it”.
Barcelona is the only team that continues to lead the Super League together with Real Madrid and Juventus, after the rest of the members left the ship after threats from UEFA. The leader defends the attractiveness of the duels between 'Davids' and 'Goliaths' in the world of football: "It is nice and healthy that a smaller team beats the big one. Going with the weak is very nice. You find that a European Championship is won by Greece and it's very nice. And when Leicester won in England it was special. This is football."
Responding to some of the criticism that the Superliga has received, Laporta remarks that in no case should they replace the national leagues, that it would rather be "an improved Champions League". “We have to combine the Super League with the leagues of each country. For me that is very important. I believe in the leagues of each country and for me it would be a mistake for the Super League to replace the leagues. The Super League will be an improved Champions League”, he maintains. And he adds: “With a very good competition format, it will surely be the most attractive competition in the world. But at the same time you have to be skillful to maintain the state leagues, this is fundamental”, concludes Laporta.
