Did you know that one of the first attempts to form a European Super League was codenamed Project Gandalf?
It was conjured up by the game’s elite in the late 1990s but the fellowship unraveled as soon as the plotters realised they were better off financially if they stuck with the Champions League, which was just setting out on its journey to becoming the runners-up-and-best-of-the-rest league, too.
Why the plan was named after the Tolkien hero is lost in the mists of time but wizards have a lot in common with European Super League plans: you cannot kill them.
We were reminded of the immortality of ideas at this week’s Financial Times Business of Football Summit in London, where almost every headline speaker at the two-day event was asked for their opinion on a story most football fans thought they had last seen plummeting into a black abyss nearly a year ago.
“It will make a comeback,” said Gary Neville, when asked if he thought the European Super League was an ex-idea.
“It will come back in some rehashed, reworked version, maybe with a cherry on it this time.”
The former England and Manchester United defender still does not think it will get off the ground (“the fans don’t want it”) but, to mix cinematic/literary metaphors, he does not think it is safe to get back in the water until the government forces English football to accept an independent regulator. That was the main recommendation of the fan-led review conducted by former sports minister Tracey Crouch in the wake of the European Super League’s most recent reincarnation — those febrile 48 hours last April when 12 of Europe’s biggest teams, including the Premier League’s Big Six, decided the Champions League was not exclusive enough any more.
“When that happens, I’ll finally believe the European Super League is dead,” he added.
