Plus Andy Burnham's five point plan for football fans to 'reclaim control' of their clubs

On Sunday 18 April, AC Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Internazionale Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham jointly announced an agreement to form a new competition, the Super League, a breakaway from the Champions League.

As the news percolated out, the football world lost its collective shit.

The truth is that this had been rumbling under on and off for years. Our own Danny Moran wrote, "Is that Big Six mini-league at the top of the Premiership where it’s at?" in an article on post-Premiership football in Manchester back in 2019.

Predictions aside, we look at the reactions of Mancs as the whole debacle unfurled - the funny, the incisive and the moving.

Read on to find out how the metro Mayors of Manchester and Liverpool propose to sort the whole thing out. 

On Sunday, Tony Mowbray goes all Nostradamus on us from the off: "I can see it dying away pretty quickly... and I think it should." Even Tone didn't know how right he was.

Gary Neville is an early, and ardent, critic of the Super League. The philanthropist slash commentator slash developer slash new national hero sets out his footballing ideology below. Plus we discover the multi-talented Neville has another string to his bow.

Manchester illustrator Stan Chow sums up many people's reactions.

Andy Mitten, editor of United We Stand, is typically muted and ambiguous about his feelings on the matter. Oh wait.

Would it be a Twitter round-up without Liam Gallagher swearing? What would Peggy say? We reckon she'd have told City to fuck it off too.

Luke Shaw's considered and articulate response gets acclaim from many, while Marcus Rashford goes for a bold image to convey his feelings.

Manchester podcaster Mark Goldbridge tweets images of grumpy Chelsea fans as it all kicks off on Monday evening. Man City fans are quick to point out that their club was the first to jump ship. 

Ouch.

Well that's one way of looking at it... turns out the owners are the heroes?

Fan rep Rick is a voice of reason.

MPs band together to urge the Manchester clubs to reconsider. Shadow business minister and MP for Manchester Central Lucy Powell gets especially hot under the collar.

Manchester United also decide to withdraw, after offering Edward Woodward up as sacrifice to the Football Gods.

Nicky Butt also resigns from United, but he looks rather more delighted about the prospect. 

Manchester-based broadcaster and journalist Carl Anka puts the matter to bed.

Read now: Super League collapse - Let's talk Manchester teams you can believe in

Read again: Manchester football clubs at the centre of Premiership breakaway tensions

Burnham Rotheram

A modest proposal

Meanwhile, in politics-land, Metro mayors and actual blokes Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram have banded together to put pressure on the Government to sort this mess out.

Their five calls are:

1) For the Government to use the Queen's speech as an opportunity to commit to reform of football regulation and governance

2) To require all English clubs to secure a 51% majority of their registered season ticket holders on any major decision that fundamentally affects the club’s identity or future

3) To enact legislation that requires vendors to make shares available on a first refusal basis to recognised, democratically-controlled supporters’ trusts

4) To create an independent financial regulator for all professionals leagues and clubs

5) To call on UEFA to rethink proposals for Champions League reform

You can find out more at reclaimourgame.com and sign a letter of support for the proposals.