Finance guru: Liverpool fans will be livid as John Henry ally issues controversial statement
Bedrock Liverpool supporters would easily tire of seeing their club face Europe’s elite every week.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about controversial recent comments from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
Perez, along with Liverpool owner John Henry, was one of the chief architects of last April’s Super League plot.
But while Liverpool quickly withdrew their support in the face of a monumental fan backlash, Real, Barcelona and Juventus have not given up on the breakaway competition.
As quoted by the Liverpool ECHO last Sunday (2 October), Perez cited the fact that his club and Liverpool have faced each other just nine times as justification for his continued attempts to uproot the European game.
But Plumley argues that viewer fatigue could set in if blockbuster fixtures took place every week.
“This goes back to the fundamentals of why Real Madrid and other clubs were pushing for the Super League in the first place,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“It’s for the wider market. It’s not necessarily for people that follow European football quite closely because we’re aware that these games have taken place historically.
“Part of the appeal of the Champions League and formerly the European Cup is the luck of the draw. You get these instances where teams will go for quite a while without playing each other.
“But when they are drawn together, you get a buzz and all the things that come with that.
“The other side of the coin with Super League is that the high-level execs of some of these clubs are suggesting that fans want to see Real Madrid play Liverpool every other week.
“There is some appeal to that. Around the world, people would pay to see that. The flip side is that 10 years down the line, do we get fed up with seeing these games every week? It’s a balance.
“The comments are loaded because we know this is what the clubs are pushing for. But in sporting competition, we do have that luck-of-the-draw element.”
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