Europe’s Soccer Coup Was Foiled by an Uproar and a French Snub
It was a project that had been three years in the making. But a PR disaster and an angry backlash turned it into a spectacular failure.
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The plan was simple: Persuade a dozen of Europe’s top soccer clubs to break away and upend the world’s most popular sport.
Over the winter the Super League sent French champion Paris Saint-Germain—along with the other prospective teams—pitch documents detailing how lucrative the new competition could be, according to people familiar with the proposal. But already cracks were appearing.