Gary Neville has accused the six Premier League clubs involved in forming the Super League of the "attempted murder of English football".
The former Manchester United defender has been an outspoken critic of the plot of 12 European teams to start a competition separate from the Champions League.
The plans rapidly fell apart in the days following the announcement last Sunday, with the six Premier League sides involved - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - all reversing their decision to join the Super League.
What has been said?
Neville has warned that action must be taken to prevent clubs from trying to take control of the game again in the future, pointing to the attempt to revamp English football through Project Big Picture last October as a reason to be cautious.
"Manchester United fans last week were fighting for their lives to stay in their own competition. This is far bigger than any individual that has a job at that club," he said on Sky Sports .
"Everybody that plays football, everybody that knows football, loves football, knows that this is wrong. I called them impostors.
"The ultimate long game is to get the owners out of the club, no doubt about that. But in the short term there has to be some protections put in place to ensure they can't go and do what they want with football because they want to take it away. They want to maximise the revenues, which every businessman does, but at the expense of the football fan and the fair and equal competition in England. That's just something that cannot happen.
"Ole will either keep his job through good results or won't keep his job through good results, but this is obviously far bigger than about results, three points, Manchester United winning a trophy.
"It's severe language, it was an attempted murder of English football.
"Sorry doesn't wash. It's gone past sorry, because it's twice that you've done it. If you were sorry the first time with Big Picture you wouldn't have brought back this one.
"[Real Madrid president Florentino] Perez has told us, [Joan] Laporta has told us from Barcelona, two of the biggest clubs in the world: 'We're coming back for you'. This lot are not going away, but they need to be stopped."
What happened to the Super League?
The plan to start a new European competition was unanimously rejected by football associations, fans and pundits, leading to most teams backing out shortly after confirming their intention to join.
Fans have protested against the idea, with those of United, Liverpool and Arsenal among those calling for their owners to give up control of the clubs following the latest upset.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan has admitted to making a mistake in pledging to provide a €3 billion (£2.6bn/$3.6bn) loan to fund the breakaway league.
Nevertheless, Real Madrid chief Perez has promised that the Super League will still go ahead , insisting that the clubs who helped found the league cannot leave.
Further reading
- English football announces social media boycott
- Matic sees 'positive' to talks with protesting Man Utd fans
- 'Worse than snakes!' - PL furious with Super League six