Real Madrid and Barcelona presidents Florentino Pérez and Joan Laporta have been rinsed by two English Premier League legends after the European Union's top court ruled UEFA and FIFA defied competition law by blocking the breakaway European Super League.
The ruling three days ago was welcomed by the powerful figureheads with Pérez speaking of his delight.
"In the coming days we will carefully study the scope of this resolution, but I do anticipate two conclusions of great historical significance," he said of the result.
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"First of all, that European club football is not and will never be a monopoly again. And secondly, that from today the clubs will be the owners of their destiny.
"Clubs see fully recognised our right to propose and promote European competitions that modernise our sport and attract fans from all over the world. In short, today the Europe of freedoms has triumphed again and today soccer and its fans have also triumphed."
However in a blow to the rebel league's bosses, a number of EPL clubs, along with Atletico Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich put out statements rejecting plans to join the rebel league.
Champions League winner Jamie Carragher said he was "embarrassed" for both presidents.
"The way they carried on after this court ruling that they'd won this big case and when you digged into the detail, basically nothing had changed but they tried to put on this big façade that they were the winners and we're going to do this league," the former Liverpool star said on The Gary Neville Podcast.
"The great thing was football clubs around the world just came out and put statements out and the best one was Atletico Madrid, the number three team in Spain basically just laughed at those two and the carry on.
"The Premier League clubs reacted really well … the reason the Super League is trying to be created is because Barcelona and Real Madrid who have been top dogs for so many years financially, buying the best players in the world, are terrified of the product of the Premier League and the money that comes into the Premier League.
"There is no Super League without the teams here."
Manchester United legend Neville echoed the sentiments of his former England teammate but believes the powerhouse clubs could still get their way into the future.
"My concern with these two clubs is that they're monsters of football clubs, if they can somehow entice clubs from Italy … maybe Saudi Arabia … Juventus might join, AC Milan," he said.
"All of a sudden you've got five or six of the great clubs not playing in the UEFA competitions … and they'll start to have a LIV Golf-type situation where you've got a divide and people start to say you've got to bring this together.
"It's a bit of a dangerous situation where we need to be careful, it absolutely can't happen, but we've got to be mindful these clubs are huge and they're playing the long game with it."
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