Liverpool owner JW Henry was the man executives of the Dirty Dozen wanted to front the European Super League project.
The American FSG honcho refused, which meant Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was its frontman – with disastrous consequences.
As Perez gave his incredible, brash interviews with Spanish television on Monday night, the New York Times explains the reaction amongst the founding members.
“In the headquarters of the other Super League clubs, executives held their heads in their hands. Still, though, they remained mute, unwilling to go public to defend a plan that Pérez claimed had been designed expressly to “save football,” Rory Smith wrote.
The report also explains how there were initial concerns Perez wouldn’t be able to convince an English audience, and interestingly, that the PR was focussed on governments and legislators rather than the popular support – which proved 100% accurate.
What baffles us most in their appalling planning was that none of the men behind it properly came out and explained why. We got a bit of Perez waffle, but little else. We were simply told what was happening, not why, not how.
It was a shocking indictment of the savviness of billionaires, who you perhaps wrongly assume must know what they’re doing.
Who knows, if they’d marketed it better and shown their own fans some respect, they might have got away with it!