At 11.20pm on a Sunday in April exactly one year ago, football changed.
An identical statement was posted on the websites of Manchester City and 11 other European giants. Seemingly out of nowhere, they were withdrawing from the Champions League and setting up a $3.5billion breakaway competition as founding members. It would guarantee more money for those clubs, and remove the fear of failing to qualify for the world’s most prestigious games the following season.
It was, rather unimaginatively, called the European Super League, and when City pressed publish on that statement they cannot have anticipated the backlash that followed. The fact there was the same statement published by each club, with comment from Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer but nobody connected with City, only grated with fans more.
