The six English clubs involved in the European Super League plans have dramatically pulled out of the proposed competition following a huge backlash from fans.
Each of the clubs made the announcement on their official twitter handle barely 72 hours after indicating interest in taking part in the proposed project.
Mega-rich Manchester City were first to officially break ranks last night by announcing they would turn their back on the £4.6billion proposals.
Then, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur suddenly announced they would follow suit.
And Chelsea, who are thought to have been the first to break rank, became the last to formally announce plans to pull out of the proposals.
The west London club released a statement released late last night after their Premier League clash with Brighton.
European clubs such as Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, and Italian sides AC and Inter Milan later followed in the footsteps of English sides by pulling out of the project.
Uefa chiefs welcomed the return of the European Super League sides, and urged a refocus on the organisation’s flagship club tournament, the Champions League – which is due to be expanded to include more teams from across the continent.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, who had earlier described the project as a ‘cartel’ threatened to show the plans the ‘straight red card’, said the decision to quit the breakaway league was ‘the right one’.
In a latest development, Manchester United chief Ed Woodward stepped down amid the row over the European Super League.
Woodward had been seen as a key figure in the fiercely controversial plans for the new breakaway league, with his links to US investment bank JP Morgan helping to secure the £4.3billion in financing, according to multiple reports.
Woodward, who has been at the club for eight years, was set to leave at the end of 2021, but the announcement has been brought forward, amid anger from fans over the Super League idea.
