The European Super League's billionaire boss refuses to accept that it is dead, even though only 3 teams are left

• The chairman of the European Super League says the competition is not dead and merely on "standby."
• Nine of the original 12 teams to join have already withdrawn following fierce backlash.
• "You cannot get out of the contract like this - they are binding contracts," Florentino Pérez said.

The chairman of the collapsed European Super League says the competition is not "dead" despite all but three teams withdrawing.

On Sunday, 12 clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan - confirmed they had agreed to join the breakaway competition.

But by Wednesday, after days of intense backlash from fans, players, and even politicians, nine of the original dozen clubs had opted out, leaving just Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Juventus remaining.

The rapid withdrawals forced Juventus' president, Andrea Agnelli, one of the key architects of the planned league, to acknowledge it was doomed.

"I don't think that project is now still up and running," he said.

Florentino Pérez, the billionaire chairman of the new league, still insists otherwise, however.

"If anyone thinks the Super League is dead, are they wrong? Absolutely," Pérez, the president of Real Madrid, told the Spanish radio show El Larguero.

"We're going to keep working and what everyone thinks is for the best will emerge. The project is on standby. The Super League still exists."

Perez went on to hint that the nine clubs that had pulled out of the project might not legally have been able to do so.

"You cannot get out of the contract like this - they are binding contracts," he said.

Pérez went on to blame one unnamed English team, reported by The Guardian to be Manchester City, for the collapse of the competition, saying its hesitancy about the project rubbed off on the other clubs.

"There was someone in the English group that didn't have much interest, I won't say who," he said.

"And then the avalanche started, the Premier League 'heating things up.' They said, 'We're going to pull out for now.'

"That began to infect others, who are also people of an age, and who are perhaps afraid because they did not understand anything of what was happening.

"We all signed a binding agreement, but I think one was never very convinced."