Less than two years after the extraordinary demise of the European Super League (ESL), the breakaway competition that had threatened to dramatically upend the football landscape, the controversial mastermind behind it has come up with a new plan to resuscitate this doomed project. 

The revamped ESL could involve 60 to 80 teams in a multi-divisional format, which would mean participants could be promoted or relegated within the competition, and there would be no permanent members, with a minimum of 14 games per club per season, according to a statement released on Thursday by A22 Sports Management, a consultancy hired by the Super League organizers. 

A22 claimed that it has held talks with 50 European clubs and stakeholders of football, and "the vast majority of them share the assessment that the very foundation of European football is under threat, and it is time for change."

"It is the clubs that bear the entrepreneurial risk in football," the statement added. "But when important decisions are at stake, they are too often forced to sit idly by on the sidelines as the sporting and financial foundations crumble around them." 

The original plans for the ESL sparked widespread condemnation in April in 2021 as it offered permanent membership to its 12 founding clubs in an attempt to challenge the UEFA Champions League. After an outcry from fans, players and football governing bodies, the move collapsed within 48 hours. 

Most founding clubs, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, pulled out of the project, only Spanish giants Barcelona, Real Madrid and Italian powerhouse Juventus remain as holdouts and they are still pushing for the ESL.  

"What we want is that dialogue with UEFA isn't broken and is harmonized with national leagues. I think that through dialogue we will finally reach a good deal with UEFA," Barcelona president Joan Laporta said at a press conference on Thursday.

The feisty Spaniard insisted that the new-look ESL would need to cooperate with UEFA before adding he expected the European Union's top court to provide a ruling in the coming months and that the ESL organizers would be able to start the competition. 

The sense of urgency was shared by A22 chief executive Bernd Reichart. "Our objective is to present a sustainable sporting project for European club competitions available to, at a minimum, all 27 EU member states as soon as possible after receipt of the judgment," Reichart told German newspaper Die Welt.  

"Our talks have also made it clear that clubs often find it impossible to speak out publicly against a system that uses the threat of sanctions to thwart opposition," Reichart added.  

"Our dialogue was open, honest, constructive and resulted in clear ideas about what changes are needed and how they could be implemented... There is a lot to do and we will continue our dialogue."

Spanish La Liga president Javier Tebas responded to the new ESL by tweeting, "The Super League is the wolf, who today disguises himself as a granny to try to fool European football, but his nose and his teeth are very big." 

The disdain was echoed by the European Club Association (ECA), a body representing the interests of 245 major clubs. "ECA notes the latest dispatch from A22's alternative reality," read a statement.   

"However, in the real world, this rehashed idea has already been proposed, discussed and comprehensively rejected by all stakeholders in 2019. This is just another deliberately distorted and misleading attempt to destabilize the constructive work currently taking place between football's real stakeholders to move things forward in the overall best interests of the European club game."

The most poignant scorn was provided by Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the Football Supporters' Association. "The walking corpse that is the European Super League twitches again," he tweeted. "With all the self-awareness one associates with a zombie." 

"They say 'dialogue with fans and independent fan groups is essential' yet the European Zombie League marches on – willfully ignorant to the contempt supporters across the continent have for it."