European Super League: updates after Premier League clubs withdraw – live!

So, what next? Should the clubs involved still be punished (plenty of correspondence in my inbox suggests that what many of you want)? If so, how? How does “the game” protect itself from future unrest? Is this, finally, a necessary reckoning, or simply a milestone on the road to a grim, inevitable future?

At times like this, it’s worth checking in with the oracle David Goldblatt.

We have already allowed this coterie of billionaires to own and deform the game for some time. This particular circus may yet fold, but the economic and political shifts that made it possible will still be with us. Now we need to do more than call their bluff and settle for the compromise of an expanded Champions League. We must rewrite the rules, remake the institutions and reassess our role as fans – for we all, collectively, allowed them to contemplate this gambit, and to believe they could get away with it.

We’re still waiting for the announcements to start rolling in again, after the flurry of official statements late last night. It is expected that at some point today the two Milan giants will formally withdraw from the European Super League, leaving Juventus as the only Italian representatives remaining.

Andrea Agnelli, the Juve chairman, faces a day under the microscope. He was reportedly a key player in the Super League’s development, but now faces a backlash against his involvement.

So too does Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who has the misfortune of being the face of the doomed breakaway.

As with Barney’s column, there’s a theme amongst the correspondence I’m receiving that this moment must be seized by the football community, not only to prevent a similar hijacking unfolding in the future, but also to harness the momentum this episode has provoked to make necessary reforms.

For example: “What a wonderful victory for the fans,” emails Mary Waltz. “But you can’t let up, the government must pass laws to make sure this never happens. The Glazers, Kroenke etc will never give up their dream of an NFL style franchise system. These people are not used to not getting their way. They will eventually try again unless the law stops them.”

Clearly there is political capital to be gained from introducing legislation, but as David Conn writes, whether a Boris Johnson-led government choses to pull that lever remains to be seen.