In the hard-fought battle to have the worst public relations in all of football, a league far more competitive than the one they had in mind, we have a winner.

Ed Woodward, the soon to be departing chief executive of Manchester United wins the award for the most tin-eared, most arrogant sounding response to the fury at the now collapsed European Super League.

Real Madid president Florentino Perez also caught the eye of the judges and is spitting feathers at coming in second.

Manchester United’s excuse for an apology today is three mealy-mouthed paragraphs long.

In fact, since it doesn’t actually say sorry, it doesn’t count as an apology.

Woodward, who must have signed off the statement, somehow thinks that what was required is references to “key stakeholders” and “sustainable solutions”.

Far better, in fact pretty classy, was this from John Henry of Liverpool, both in a written statement and in a video with him speaking direct to camera.

A precis: This is all my fault. I got it completely wrong.

It ends: “I hope you’ll understand that even when we make mistakes, we’re trying to work in your club’s best interests. In this endeavour I’ve let you down.”

Not that difficult really.