Forty-eight hours.
That’s all the time it took for the ill-conceived European Super League to fall apart since it was announced on April 18.
The backlash from the football community was swift, widespread and profound.
Chelsea FC was the first to withdraw from the breakaway league.
“Having joined the group late last week, we’ve now had time to consider the matter fully and have decided that our continued participation in these plans would not be in the best interests of the Club, our supporters or the wider football community,” the Blues said in a statement posted on its website.
Manchester City followed suit, then Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur, all on the same day.
Apart from the “Big Six” of the English Premier League, La Liga’s Atletico Madrid, and Serie A’s Inter Milan, Juventus and AC Milan have left the group.
This leaves only two of the league’s 12 founding members that have yet to announce their departure as of yesterday morning, April 22 — Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
As fans are left wondering why Barca has not left the league, club president Joan Laporta said in a statement: “Barca will not enter the Super League without the approval of the Assembly of Members. It is they who decide, it is their club.”
That essentially leaves Real Madrid as the Super League’s last club standing.
That isn’t surprising since its president Florentino Perez also happens to be the founding chairman of the league.
However, his four vice-chairmen of the apocalypse — Juventus chairman Andrea Agneli, Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer, Liverpool owner John Henry, and Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke — all
saw their respective clubs pull out from the league, which has now been suspended.
But stubborn Perez, in an interview with Spanish radio program El Larguero, claims the Super League is just “in stand-by,” pointing out that the 12 founding clubs “signed a binding contract.”
The Los Blancos president insists they just want to save football through the Super League, especially after the pandemic.
Perez just better save face and never show it again.