The Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, said the 12 clubs announced last week as founders of the European Super League cannot abandon it due to binding contracts and promised the project would return soon. Pérez, whose club is one of three along with Barcelona and Juventus yet to withdraw, said it was not so simple for clubs to leave. “I don’t need to explain what a binding contract is but effectively, the clubs cannot leave,” Pérez told Spanish newspaper AS. “Some of them, due to pressure, have said they’re leaving. But this project, or one very similar, will move forward and I hope very soon.” On Saturday, Manchester United fans staged protests outside Old Trafford, demanding the Glazer family cease ownership of the club after their part in the Super League project. Joel Glazer wrote an open letter of apology to fans and is also reported to have apologised to the club’s players. JP Morgan, who had provided a €3.5bn grant to the founding clubs, said on Friday it had “misjudged how the deal would be viewed”. Pérez, however, said the bank was still on board: “It’s not true they’ve withdrawn. They have taken some time for reflection, just like the 12 clubs. If we need to make changes we will but the Super League is the best project we’ve thought of. “The partnership still exists as do the members who comprise the Super League. What we have done is taken a few weeks to reflect in light of the fury of certain people who don’t want to lose their privileges and have manipulated the project.” Pérez reiterated the need for the new competition to boost clubs struggling to cope with losses from the coronavirus pandemic, adding that the 12 Super League clubs had lost a combined €650m last year and stood to lose up to €2.5bn this year. He was also not convinced by Uefa’s reform of the Champions League, with the competition expanded to 36 teams from 2024. “The Super League is the best possible project to help football come out of the crisis. Football is gravely hurt and we have to adapt to the era we live in,” he said. “The Champions League reform isn’t the best it can be, and what’s more we cannot wait until 2024.”