Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has disclosed his discussion with Juventus patron Andrea Agnelli over the European Super League.

He admits that the game needs changes and UEFA is probably not willing to make them.

He is also of the opinion that clubs need to take their destiny into their own hands and pay some money to UEFA and not the other way round.

However, he doesn’t support the approach of the 12 teams that formed the breakaway ESL which has now failed.

De Laurentiis says he always told Agnelli that their approach was wrong and claimed he thinks the process of moving into a new competition should have been more democratic instead of a closed-shop as the original founders had wanted it to be.

He admits that they spend too much to play in the Champions League and don’t get enough money in return from UEFA.

But the Super League idea was doomed to fail when the founders made themselves principals instead of keeping the door open for anyone to join freely.

He said at the Passepartout Festival via Football Italia: “The Super League comes from the fact institutions try to build on our money and our investment. What interest does Real Madrid, Juve or Napoli have in playing the Champions League and going into debt in order to make €70-80-90-100m more when we spent €200-300m to get there? It doesn’t work.

“I am part of the ECA (European Club Association) and I always told Agnelli he was getting it wrong with the Super League, because they wanted to become the principle actors of the system, but instead they should’ve democratically left the door open to everyone.

“We do need to create another competition and take it away from UEFA, keeping UEFA as some sort of secretary general. We clubs would then give UEFA a percentage of the revenue rather than have them pay us.

“Agnelli, Perez and the others made the mistake of not declaring football has failed due to the institutions. They keep promising change and it never happens. It’s always, we’ll think about it, let’s see what happens. Football should be developing continually.”