Barcelona’s withdrawal from the European Super League project has been expected for months.

It is just the latest step in the slow death of what is generally accepted as a badly conceived, and disastrously delivered, attempt to break away from the Champions League.

The closed-shop project was finished as soon as the six Premier League clubs pulled out in 2021.

With the fan-controlled Bundesliga teams not interested and Paris St-Germain snubbing it too, it was not going to be financially viable.

Juventus had pulled out by the time A22 Sports, the company behind it, tried a relaunch at the end of 2024.

Rebranded as the Unify League, it turned out to be another misstep.

The 96-team, multi-tiered competition was at least based on sporting merit. But the top division was limited to just 16 clubs. It was not likely to get the widespread support of top clubs it required.

Barcelona and Real Madrid plugged on, going through the courts to prove Uefa had no grounds to block the Super League.

The La Liga duo had some success, with Uefa having to rewrite its authorisation rules.

Real Madrid also said they had won the right to “claim substantial damages”.

But it was a series of Pyrrhic victories.

Real Madrid might still try to fight on but in truth the European Super League was killed off five years ago.