It is not failing to win the Premier League – which is Woodward’s great regret – that led to his resignation. Instead, it was a point of principle, with the 50 year-old deciding to trigger the 12-month notice period in his contract because he fundamentally disagreed with United signing up to the European Super League last April.
When it became clear that 12 of the biggest clubs in Europe planned a breakaway from Uefa and the Champions League, Woodward hoped it was simply brinksmanship. After all, the clubs had been there before, most noticeably in Munich in 2016 when the threat was used as leverage to get more of what they wanted out of European football’s governing body. It worked then and surely would work again?
This time, however, the drivers of the movement – Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez – were deadly serious. When it came to being discussed at United, Woodward had to recuse himself because he sat on the board of the European Club Association. It meant he was actually not involved in the United boardroom vote to approve the breakaway.
Senior figures at Uefa and the Premier League find this hard to believe and argue that Woodward was one of the ESL architects and has attempted to rewrite history. It is understood, however, that when he spoke to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and pledged his support to the body’s own Champions League reforms he did so in good faith believing neither United nor Liverpool, the two key English clubs, would back the ESL.
Ceferin later called Woodward a “snake”. There was, however, a United board meeting on Friday, April 16 which Woodward did not attend, where United voted through their support for the ESL. Woodward was told of the decision the next day, and duly began writing a rationale document because he knew, as the most senior executive at the biggest English club, he would have to explain to the world what was going on.
Except, despite drafting it and redrafting it several times, he could not complete it. Woodward disagreed with the anti-competitive concept of no relegation and qualification that would be at the heart of the ESL so, on Monday morning, he called Joel Glazer and informed him that he could not carry on. As United are listed on the New York Stock Exchange the announcement had to wait by which time the ESL was quickly unravelling and then fell apart. Maybe if Woodward had delayed he would have stayed, but having offered his resignation, which was accepted, he felt he had to go through with it.
