According to a study in Spain, the Super League project announcement was accompanied by Twitter bots to make it seem as if the idea was popular.
El Confidencial released the findings of the Pandemia Digital investigation, which looked at social media activity in the 72 hours after the Super League project was confirmed in April.
It all fell apart within 48 hours, because the vast majority of the clubs who had committed to the league had already pulled out.
They eventually all did, except for Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona, who continue to push the idea of setting up a breakaway European Super League.
Among the reasons for the incredibly quick collapse of the project was the vicious pushback from fans on social media.
This was followed by coaches, players and the representatives of other clubs.
However, it seems as if the idea was in fact even more unpopular than previously thought, because the study identified 18,000 tweets from 7,000 accounts that were with all likelihood bots.
These accounts were created just before the posts were made and had zero followers, all of them using the hashtag #EstamosContigoPresi – We are with you President – referring to Real Madrid and Super League chief Florentino Perez.
Another 3,600 tweets were published with the exact same phrase: “The Super League is a good idea and will revolutionise football.”
However, they were drowned out by the over two million tweets from 272,000 different accounts discussing the Super League project, most of them angrily against the idea.