The least surprising news of the week arrived on Friday when it was confirmed that LIV Golf is facing liquidation.
The writing was on the wall for the disruptor competition once Saudi Arabia pulled its funding in April. LIV ended up being a financial black hole, estimated to have squandered in the region of $5 billion through its failed attempt to take over world golf.
At least in the sheer scale of its losses, LIV will go down as one of the most catastrophic ventures in sports and entertainment history. That said, it has plenty of competition. Below are five of sport's biggest miscues.
LIV Golf
Launched in 2022, LIV was a key part of Saudi Arabia's foray into the global sports market. Cristiano Ronaldo headed to the kingdom to play football, Anthony Joshua arrived to defend his heavyweight boxing title, and LIV set about a hostile takeover of world golf.
However, in the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the disruptor league found robust, well-resourced and organised foes who, despite being unable to match the riches on offer to defectors, still managed to retain the bulk of the leading talent.
Spent forces such as Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were easily lured, but star names such as Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were far more sceptical.
The major problem with LIV was that it was a poor product, pushing weak ideas as supposed innovations – teams with corny names, night golf and so on. It was completely ill-equipped to threaten a sport with heritage like the Masters, Open Championship and Ryder Cup.
The $500m capture of Jon Rahm was about as good as it got for LIV, which, despite talks about a merger, never truly held any leverage and has now slid into oblivion, having failed to gain any meaningful market share.
European Super League
If LIV was sport's costliest failure, then the European Super League goes down as its most toxic. The ESL saw some of football's richest clubs attempt to break away from the established order and create a lucrative, largely closed continental tournament.
The bombshell news arrived in April 2021, but the project collapsed within 48 hours amid a severe backlash from supporters, players, managers, governing bodies and politicians.
The original proposal involved 12 clubs: England's Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham; Spain's Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid; and Italy's Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.
Driven by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, the project was seen by critics as a greedy, self-serving attempt by Europe's elite to protect their wealth and status at the expense of the wider game. The backlash was immediate. Supporters protested outside stadiums, while players and managers publicly criticised the plans. The British government threatened intervention, and Uefa and Fifa warned of sanctions against participating clubs and players.
All six English clubs withdrew on April 20, followed by the Italian clubs and Atletico Madrid. The project was effectively dead within two days of its launch.
The XFL
What happens when you try to merge wrestling with American football? The answer was the XFL, the contrived brainchild of WWE founder Vince McMahon.
Launched in 2001, the XFL promised a more extreme, entertainment-driven version of the sport. Gimmicks included putting nicknames on shirts, fitting microphones on players and introducing a violent scramble instead of a coin toss at the start of games.
Introduced at a high point in the modern history of McMahon's wrestling business, the XFL enjoyed strong initial TV audiences, but interest quickly faded amid scathing reviews, poor-quality play and increasingly crass broadcasts. With ratings plummeting, it folded after just one season, costing its backers an estimated $70m.
McMahon tried to revive the concept in 2020, but the relaunch was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic after just five weeks of competition, and the league subsequently filed for bankruptcy.
International Premier Tennis League
Launched in 2014, the IPTL attempted to reinvent tennis as a franchise-based team competition involving some of the game's biggest names.
Founded by former Indian doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi and inspired by the success of cricket's IPL, it featured teams based across Asia, including the UAE Royals in Dubai.
Legends such as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Andy Murray all signed up for a competition that included shorter sets, shot clocks and live music.
The novelty soon wore off. Poor attendance and problems securing investment saw the IPTL reduced from five host cities to three, while Federer and Williams withdrew amid funding concerns. The IPTL was cancelled in 2016, with millions of dollars reportedly owed to players and suppliers.
Fundamentally, much like LIV, the attempt to transform an individual sport into a team event simply did not work.
The Stanford Super Series
The arrival of Texan billionaire Allen Stanford brought about one of cricket's most farcical episodes and ultimately ended in embarrassment for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Stanford turned up in 2008 with a pitch for the Stanford Super Series – his plan to revolutionise T20 cricket. Having launched a T20 tournament in the Caribbean two years earlier, he struck a deal with the ECB.
The marquee event was a winner-takes-all match between England and a Caribbean team called the Stanford Superstars in Antigua, with $20m going to the victors. Stanford staged a publicity stunt, arriving at Lord's by helicopter carrying a treasure chest supposedly containing the money. He then upset the England players when he was shown behaving in an overfamiliar manner with their wives as the team played a warm-up match against Middlesex.
England ultimately lost by 10 wickets to the Stanford Superstars, but the planned five-year series never materialised. In February 2009, Stanford was accused by US authorities of an $8bn investment fraud. The ECB immediately terminated all contracts, bringing the project to an abrupt conclusion.
Stanford was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 110 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated at US Penitentiary Coleman II in Florida.
