It's 19 months since the European Super League came crashing down within 48 hours of its launch.
The attempts of 12 of the continent's biggest clubs to strike out on their own for a breakaway competition that promised huge revenues and to answer the prayers of major club owners when it came to a never-ending stream of money were foiled thanks to the angry backlash of fans, governing bodies and the wider football family.
Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid had all, behind closed doors, signed contractual agreements to commit to the competition. But in the hours following its announcement, as the anger grew, they fell away one by one until only Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona remained espoused to the idea.
Liverpool's own exit from the plot came via a recorded apology from John Henry, principal owner and chief of the Reds' owners Fenway Sports Group. Following that apology came a commitment from both the club and its supporters groups, led by the Spirit of Shankly, to create a Supporters Board that would allow for meaningful representation at board level for fans, with the newly created Supporters Board, which came into being officially in August, requiring consent to be given to any further ESL proposals involving the Reds.
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That contract was written into the articles of association at the club, meaning that whoever owns the club has a binding commitment to the Supporters Board. With FSG now opening themselves up to expressions of interest regarding a potential full sale, it provides some element of security for Reds fans who may be concerned that any change of ownership would result in them being part of the ESL conversation again, something that was wholly rejected by the fan base.
But the rebel trio of Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona continue to be the agitators for change and remain determined to keep the road clear for another run at the ESL. They have been involved in a legal wrangle with UEFA for more than a year, challenging what they believe is a monopoly on the game held by European football's governing body.
Only last month A22, the holding company behind the ESL, hired Bernd Reichart as its CEO to drive forward plans for a new format and drum up support for it around Europe. But having been granted an audience with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin earlier this month where a number of fan groups, stakeholders and club officials were present, the reported frosty reception demonstrated that the appetite for the ESL has diminished from what it was in early 2021.
The offensive has continued, though. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez claimed European football was "sick" back in September and that the ESL was the only panacea to what ailed the game, while Barcelona president Joan Laporta has this week been throwing around enormous figures in a bid to make some team owners whose margins may have been squeezed sit up and take notice.
Laporta has claimed that the founding clubs of any new ESL competition would be handed an initial €1bn bonus, with revenues of €300m per year suggested.
"From the outset, for the founding clubs, there is an initial bonus of €1bn, and per season, we could get about €300m annually in this competition," Laporta told Spanish website Sport.
"In addition, the key to the Super League is that the clubs will have governance. UEFA will obviously be at the governance table, but the clubs will have the majority.
"The Super League is a great opportunity. But you can only win through dialogue. What the Super League aims to do is improve football. It fights for the sustainability of football, so that the clubs come out of ruin, so that the clubs can be more and more competitive and have more resources.
"The Super League will end up as a much-improved Champions League, which will be based on meritocracy, that is, it will be open, without club discrimination, but with guarantees and rules that will allow clubs to have more resources."
A move towards a league where the biggest clubs have a greater say and where there is more cost certainty is something that piqued the interest of club owners ahead of the 2021 attempt, Henry among them, with the ESL plot having fallen apart after another proposed change to the landscape of English football, Project Big Picture, was also kicked into the long grass. Project Big Picture was something that Henry was a driving force behind.
Barcelona's motivation behind wanting to the ESL to arrive is largely down to their own financial state of play. While the pandemic impacted every football club as traditional revenue streams dried up, Barcelona's approach to the transfer market eventually caught up with them as they racked up more than £1bn in debts and were forced to sell their best assets, Lionel Messi among them.
They also had to pull a number of 'economic levers' to allow them to get back to some semblance of normality and at least attempt to put together a competitive team, selling their shares in their future television rights and their in-house production company to finance new arrivals and reduce some of their debt burden.
The need for Liverpool is far less, although with the gap widening between themselves and Manchester City when it comes to financial growth, largely down to the ability for City to leverage their simpatico relationships in the Middle East into tremendous commercial value, how to keep revenues climbing year on year will be a concern for both FSG and whoever comes next.
The claims of a €1bn bonus and revenues half of what major Premier League clubs rake in for an entire campaign that includes Champions League football are another roll of the dice for Laporta - and the three clubs that remain in the hope that they can sway opinion of both fans and club owners to make another run at a launch successful.
FSG, after their own mistakes, have put some roadblocks in place for that ever to happen again with the creation of the Supporters Board, and such moves will undoubtedly form part of the thinking for any would-be bidder for Liverpool who would have to accept that they would not be able to enter into any ESL agreements without the backing of the Supporters Board, which comprises of a number of Reds fan groups.
No other club has taken such measures to truly place a barrier between themselves and another ESL plot. The stance is something that should be applauded, although it will require a unified approach from the clubs that abandoned the plan to ensure that they don't get left out in the cold, which was part of the motivation for signing up to the original agreement.
There will undoubtedly be more wild claims and outlandish promises made in the coming months.
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