Florentino Perez remains adamant the European Super League must go ahead as "football is severely damaged", with the Real Madrid president suggesting the possibility of the top-four teams from each country featuring in the breakaway competition.

Plans for a Super League to rival UEFA's Champions League were announced on Sunday, with 12 founding members – Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Juventus, Inter and Milan.

But after widespread criticism from UEFA, FIFA, clubs, governments, fans and pundits, all six Premier League clubs pulled out, while Atletico, Inter, Milan and Juve followed suit.

Perez – who had been appointed as chairman of the competition – has continued to stress the need for the Super League and he flagged the idea of moving away from an exclusive group of clubs.

"These things get manipulated," Perez told Diario AS, with the full interview to be published on Saturday. "It is not a plan which excludes club and nor is it designed to go against other leagues.

"The Super League project is the best possible solution, and it has been created to help football get out of the crisis. Football is severely damaged because its economy has been ruined and it has to adapt to the new era we are living in. The Super League does not go against domestic competitions and its objective is to ensure that more money is available for all sections of football. The concept is to generate more interest for the games. Nor do I think that the changes which UEFA have made are a real solution to the problem because what has been proposed isn't even an improvement on the current model.

"Also, we cannot wait until 2024. But in any case, we must have done something badly. We are going to try to turn this around and develop more ideas. Maybe the solution is for the top four teams in every league to play. I don't know, but something needs to be done because today's youth, those between 14 and 24 years of age, are abandoning football because they see it as being boring compared to the other forms of entertainment which they prefer.

"There are four billion football fans all over the world and half of them are fans of the clubs in the Super League. Football is the only global sport."

Perez added: "Lets look at the data: a recent report by KPMG - in the first three months of the pandemic alone last season, the 12 clubs in the Super League reported losses of 650 million euros.

"By the end of this season, with the pandemic still ongoing, the losses will be between 2,000 and 2,500 million euros. Girondins [Bordeaux] have recently gone into administration. Either we do something soon or many more clubs will go under."

Manchester City's involvement in the swiftly aborted European Super League means their ex-chairman David Bernstein does not think they deserve to win the Champions League this season.

Pep Guardiola's side continue their bid for elusive European glory when they face Paris Saint-Germain in a mouth-watering semi-final next week, although the prospects of the fixture even taking place appeared to be in jeopardy after City were one of 12 teams announced for the controversial breakaway Super League three days ago.

A concerted backlash throughout and beyond football led to the Premier League leaders becoming the first team to officially withdraw from the project on Tuesday, with the other five England clubs involved following suit.

Former FA chairman Bernstein, who helmed City as they rebuilt from relegation to the third tier of English football at the end of the last century, is a lifelong supporter of the club, but feels let down and surprised by their actions.

PSG are the only team remaining in this season's Champions League who were not one of the Super League 12 and, when asked by Stats Perform News whether UEFA might prefer the Ligue 1 giants to prevail, Bernstein replied: "Listen at the moment I may be wishing myself PSG win it, I am so upset with City. They don't deserve to win it this year, given what's has happened."

The well-documented financial struggles of the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona were a key factor in them and others pursuing the money-spinning tournament, although Berntein pointed out that is not an excuse City and their Abu Dhabi ownership can so readily grasp.

"I'm extremely disappointed and embarrassed and a little surprised," he said. "They're good owners, the people at City, I think. They don't need the money, frankly.

"One or two other clubs do need the money. There is one club in particular, who will remain nameless, who've got above about billion pound of debt and must be pretty desperate with COVID and everything else that has caused income to go down."

Last year, partially in response to the challenges of the pandemic, Bernstein was part of an eight-person group also including Gary Neville and Great Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, that put forward a "Manifesto for Change", which called for a new regulatory body independent of English football's existing structure.

He believes the Super League episode underlines the need for football to make drastic change at a moment when, for now, disaster has been averted.

"Why are some of these clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid, with all their wealth and income, in such financial difficulty? Because they're paying massive wages in spite of COVID, in spite of income having been reduced for all the reasons we know.

"Why hasn't there been some wage sacrifice? Why haven't wages been controlled? In any other industry, one would have to cut expenditure to match income.

"[The Super League being stopped] is highly significant. Everyone pays lip service to this but football clubs are more than straightforward businesses. They are incredibly important in their communities. Fans have to be treated with respect and not exploited.

"Clubs always go on about not exploiting fans but, actually, in many cases they do – in terms of the size of ticket prices, the cost of merchandise and so on."

Bernstein did reserve praise for City manager Guardiola, who decried the Super League plans as "not sport" at a news conference on Tuesday, in what was arguably a key moment as momentum built towards the eventual collapse.

"Pep is in a strong position, he is almost untouchable. It's very good that he did it, as Jurgen Klopp did as well," he added.

"They have contractual positions with their clubs and you have others who won't speak out, and I've got some sympathy when they are employees and livelihoods are at stake.

"For anyone who spoke out, good luck to them and it was good that Pep Guardiola did it."

Israel Folau is no longer wanted by St George Illawarra Dragons after the NRL club confirmed it had ceased discussions to sign the former Australia international.

Folau, whose Rugby Australia contract was terminated in 2019 for a "high-level breach" after the 31-year-old posted hell awaits "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters" on Instagram, plies his trade with Super League outfit Catalans Dragons.

But St George Illawarra had been looking to lure him back to his home country, with the club having approached the NRL over the matter.

However, a brief statement released by the club on Wednesday revealed the chase was now at an end.

"While the Dragons did enquire about signing Folau, the club can confirm that such discussions have now ceased," it read.

Folau's move to Catalans in January last year prompted widespread criticism, with head coach Steve McNamara confessing: "We knew it would be controversial."