Florentino Perez insists the European Super League isn’t dead yet, as all 12 clubs remain bound to the contract they signed.

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, with Arsenal initially announcing they’d joined the European Super League as a founding member, then confirming they were withdrawing and apologising for their mistake.

To many, this meant the end of Arsenal’s involvement in the Super League, but Real Madrid president Florentino Perez insists all 12 clubs are still signed up to the competition, which is simply ‘on standby’.

“Nobody has yet paid the penalisation fee for leaving the Super League,” Perez said. “We are almost all still in this, they have not officially left yet.

“The Super League is not dead, it’s on standby and we’ll work on the project. All 12 founder clubs signed the same contract. Juventus & AC Milan have not left the Super League. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, & AC Milan are still in talks to find solutions.

“If this project didn’t work, another one will. Remember: all the 12 clubs have signed a binding contract.”

There was certainly a bit of ambiguity in Arsenal’s apology statement. They wrote that they were withdrawing from “the proposed Super League”, which could mean that they’re simply withdrawing from the competition in its current guise.

It’s obviously written to sound like they’re withdrawing altogether, but it doesn’t specifically rule out the club later rejoining under a new and different Super League proposal.

Given how little support there is for the idea right now, you’d hope the plans are dead in the water for the time being. But it looks like they could return in the coming years.