LaLiga has responded to the latest offensive from Real Madrid and Barcelona regarding their plans for a breakaway European Super League by branding them the big bad wolf trying to devour football.

La Liga responded: ‘The Super League is a wolf disguised as grandma in the hope of tricking European football but its teeth are very big.’

In A22 Sports Management’s manifesto plans are outlined for a four-division system that includes 80 teams with each side guaranteed 14 games – currently one more than a team would play if it got to the final of the Champions League.

But Spanish League president Javier Tebas tweeted: ‘Four divisions? Of course the top one for them. Government by the clubs? Of course only the big clubs.’

The tweet was accompanied by a cartoon depicting the Super League as the wolf and European Football as Red Riding Hood.

Writing in Spanish media El Pais, Bernd Reichart, chief executive of A22 Sports Management, the company behind the Super League project, said: ‘European football is on the brink of the abyss. Huge imbalances have emerged across our continent and traditional European clubs, with a glorious past, are now unable to compete.

‘They are weighed down by billions in losses caused, in large part, by a system that encourages uncontrolled spending. In order to survive, Spanish and French clubs have mortgaged their future, selling audiovisual rights for 50 years (even longer) and it seems that other European clubs will follow suit.’

The article goes on to outline a manifesto that appears to eradicate the original demands of the Super League that the competition would have permanent members, clubs that could not be relegated.