When the Deportivo de La Coruña He was super and won titles, such as the League of the year 2000, the dream of the then president of the club, Augusto Cesar Lendoiro, was to shield the future of the entity in the Golden Cup, the European Super League designed by Carlos García Pardo from A Coruña, director of Dorna, a company created in 1988 for the management and promotion of sport.
That was the time of the Superdépor and Lendoiro did not hesitate to endorse the project and champion an NBA-style basketball competition, without promotions or relegation, which ensured an economic mana for the group of those chosen by Dorna and Telefónica, the sponsor who was the longest close to fulfilling the golden dream of Carlos García Pardo.
In order to Lendoiro, who then saw that the project was very good, that European Golden League did not work because there was no leader at the helm like Florentino Pérez, since “not having a Florentine and, therefore, the necessary financial guarantees”, did not make the project viable, he said in an interview with Efe.
Lendoiro recalled that today's Super League is “very similar to the one at the beginning of 2000, but open to historical greats such as Benfica, Ajax, as well as PSG, Bayern or Borussia, among others.”
He was one of the great supporters of the project, at that time he was one of the authorized and heard voices among the leaders of Spanish football, since “Tebas, at that time, did not count at those levels,” said the sports president of the two Copas del Rey, a League and three Super Cups.
Lendoiro believes that now the project “has many possibilities”, although he admitted that “it will not be easy” because the clubs that are leading the “coup” to football “will have to clarify well fundamental issues such as solidarity with other clubs, UEFA, the Federations, Leagues “, so” it will be complicated. “
The news that has assaulted the European leagues causing the immediate rejection of the English Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, or the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and of the main soccer entities such as FIFA and UEFA, is an opportunity that Lendoiro follows as ” A privileged observer of a reality that has existed for many years, “he said, because the money generated by the clubs” was largely left to UEFA and that could not last a lifetime. “
Precisely, the fact that prime ministers of significant countries such as France or the United Kingdom have entered this debate is a resource for “politicians in distress, since this can be a very attractive topic and perhaps they can influence, if state laws allow it”, he pointed.
But, on the other hand, he warned that “nothing can be done against a private competition at the European level”, thus ruling out a real influence to abort the project that Florentino Pérez is now leading throughout Europe.
This new competition will not suppose, for César Lendoiro, a devaluation of the Spanish League because “in LaLiga for years the three clubs that are already in the Super League have played in the 'Champions' and the fourth that comes 'sneaking in' every year as the Seville or Valencia could enter the same among the five clubs that will be classified through sporting criteria “, thus ruling out any damage to the Spanish representatives.
Lendoiro reminded Efe that “the last modest who has managed to be LaLiga champion was Deportivo, and that was 20 years ago”, so he believes that he will have little influence on the clubs that are not part of the Euroleague and has advised the institutions that sit down to negotiate how to get out of the challenge caused by the nobility of European football.
“SuperLiga, UEFA, FIFA, Federations and Leagues will do well to sit down and talk and look for a solution,” said the former Deportivo president, because in his opinion they are obliged to “find” a way out that in their opinion “is not difficult to foresee. “.
In short, Lendoiro predicts that in this situation “everyone is going to lose a lot of feathers” and it is necessary that those involved “give up their rights” in order to reach an agreement that does not leave anyone too unhappy.