It was a week that no one involved in football is likely to forget

The top clubs claimed the European Super League would ‘save football’. The rest of us weren’t so sure, writes Ben Burrows

Chelsea fans protest against the ESL outside Stamford Bridge (Getty)

It’s not often you get a tournament launched, promoted, criticised and folded, all in the space of 48 hours, but that’s what happened in a week that no one involved in football will likely ever forget.

It began on a Sunday evening when 12 of the richest and most powerful clubs in Europe officially signalled their intent to form their own breakaway European tournament that they hoped would rival the Champions League. The big names were all on board with Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal joining some of the biggest clubs in the game, with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus also all signed up. They had backing too with JP Morgan putting up £4.3bn to finance the new venture and bumper broadcast deals, they said, that were ready to be signed to screen the whole thing all over the world.

Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid and the first chair of the imaginatively named Super League, said it would “save football”. The rest of us weren’t so sure. The backlash was fast and fierce. Fan groups were aghast at their clubs effectively being taken away from them overnight. Football figures such as Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher spoke about their anger at the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool being used this way. They feared too for the league pyramid and the hundreds of clubs at the bottom who rely on the finance of those privileged few at the top. The government soon weighed in as well with the prime minister, Boris Johnson, promising a “legislative bomb” to stop it.