It was on the Spanish chat show El Chiringuito late on Monday evening (Tuesday AEST) that the Real Madrid president Florentino Perez declared with some confidence that, along with his 11 European Super League co-conspirators, he was about to “save football” and within 24 hours many would argue that he had done just that.

Some of the most powerful clubs in the European game, and some of its wealthiest owners, had suffered the most astounding humiliation in sporting history. The career of their most ambitious leader, Ed Woodward, the Manchester United executive vice-chairman, and chief architect of this, the game’s most divisive breakaway, was hastily curtailed.

The Telegraph London