Rest in peace, European Super League: April 18, 2021 - April 20, 2021
Just two days after 12 of Europe's biggest soccer clubs announced the formation of a breakaway competitor to the Champions League in which all 12 would be permanent members, the so-called Super League has collapsed in spectacular fashion amid widespread protests and condemnation across the soccer world, including from fans of the 12 teams.
Liverpool, owned by John Henry, Tom Werner and Fenway Sports Group, officially announced that they have "discontinued" their plans to join the Super League Tuesday evening.
After Manchester City and Chelsea became the first teams to officially drop out earlier Tuesday, Liverpool joined Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham a few hours later to make it a clean sweep of English teams backing out.
There have been reports that Spain's Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and Italy's AC Milan are also planning to leave, but there has been nothing official as of Tuesday evening. Spain's Real Madrid and Italian clubs Juventus and Inter Milan are the other teams that were among the original 12.
Top German and French teams like Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain declined to join the league from the start.
The announcement of the league's creation on Sunday was met with immediate, widespread and vehement backlash, including protests outside the home stadiums of several of the teams, threats of boycotts from fans, and threats of expulsion or disqualification from other leagues and competitions.
Henry and FSG were met with statements of condemnation from club legends, the removal of flags from their stadium by two of the club's biggest supporter groups, and protests outside it. Henry was reportedly set to be one of the vice-chairmen of the league.
A poll conducted on Monday found that 79% of English soccer fans opposed the creation of the Super League, including 76% who identified as fans of one of the "Big Six" teams.
In Liverpool's game on Monday, their opponent, Leeds United, wore shirts during warmups protesting Liverpool's decision that read "Football is for the fans" on one side and "Earn it" with the Champions League logo on the other.
Manager Jurgen Klopp said in a pre-match interview that he did not support the creation of a Super League and that neither he nor the players had been consulted. On Tuesday, captain Jordan Henderson released a collective statement from Liverpool's players that read, "We don't like it and we don't want it to happen."
The Super League was a transparent attempt by the richest teams in the world to make even more money amongst themselves while shutting out many smaller leagues and clubs they would normally have to compete against in their domestic leagues and the Champions League, where qualification is entirely merit-based with no team, no matter how valuable, guaranteed a spot in any given year.
While the Super League was short-lived, there could still be more fallout. Manchester United's executive vice-president, Ed Woodward, resigned amid the backlash, and there have been rumors that executives at other teams could follow suit.