It has been a tumultuous week for football that saw six Premier League clubs sign up for a breakaway European Super League before beating a hasty retreat amid fan fury.
Now attention is turning to how such a situation can be prevented in the future and serious reform of how English football is run appears to be very much on the agenda.
A fan-led review into the power structures of English clubs has been announced by the Government to be chaired by Tracey Crouch MP.
And one of the ownership models to be considered will be Germany's 50+1 rule. It is often held up as the exemplar of how things should be done in football.
But what actually does it mean and would it work in the Premier League?
So what does 50+1 actually mean?
It's a system used by the German Football League (DFL) to ensure clubs don't fall under the influence of external investors such as Russian oligarchs or Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
Basically, 50 per cent of the club's shares, plus one share, must belong to the club's members - in other words, the fans of the team.
This ensures the supporters retain the majority voting rights on any issues affecting the club and one single investor cannot just waltz in and take control.
Without adherence to the 50+1 rule, the DFL would not grant a club a licence to play in the Bundesliga.
Does this completely eliminate investment?
No. Commercial investors can take minor stakes in the clubs but they wouldn't be able to push anything through without the approval of the fans.
It means the fans have the final say over the way their clubs are run. Contrast this to the Premier League, when most decisions - good or bad - are simply made at boardroom level without even asking the fans what they think.
The 50+1 rule, which was introduced to German football in October 1998, preserves the tradition that clubs there are not-for-profit organisations and also preserves a sense of democracy.
Does this explain the cheap ticket prices in the Bundesliga?
Well, it certainly prevents a greedy owner coming in and ramping them up because the fans would inevitably vote down the proposal.
Bundesliga ticket prices are undoubtedly among the cheapest in Europe's major leagues. For example, a season ticket at champions Bayern Munich cost as little as £130 for the 2019-20 season, covering 17 games.
The most expensive in Germany's top flight could be found at Paderborn (£202) but that was still £100 cheaper than the cheapest in the Premier League for that season.
The knock-on effect is that stadiums are full to the brim for the vast majority of games, you can drink alcohol on the terraces and fan groups can create colourful displays at games with flags, banners and pyros.
The fan protest scene in Germany is certainly strong. Just a couple of years ago there was one to preserve the 50+1 system to keep the fans empowered.
Did 50+1 explain the absence of German clubs from the European Super League?
It's definitely a factor. In any reasonable assessment of the state of European football, you'd certainly include Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in any line-up for a Super League. Maybe RB Leipzig as well.
But all three were quick to reject any invitation and signal their opposition.
Bayern and Dortmund said they supported the reforms to the UEFA Champions League that were signed off this week, while Leipzig said they were 'advocates of sporting competition.'
But it's almost certain that had the clubs wanted to join the six from England, three from Italy and three from Spain in the Super League, the fans would have rejected the idea if put to a vote.
At least the executives at the German clubs had the sense to realise this before even getting involved, unlike those in England who grossly underestimated the strength of fan feeling.
Give me an example of the 50+1 rule in action
Sure. Just two years ago at Hannover, the fans ousted club president Martin Kind, whom they believed was becoming too powerful.
Kind had been a long-standing opponent of 50+1, arguing that it was a breach of European Union competition laws.
In 2009, Hannover presented a motion to change the rule but it was overwhelmingly rejected. 32 of the 36 clubs in Germany's top two divisions voted against Kind's proposal.
A decade on and 2,100 Hannover members voted to get rid of him and install a new supervisory board to better reflect their interests.
Though Kind remains as the chief financial backer of the club, he has less influence.
Are there any special cases in Germany?
Yes, a few. Bayer Leverkusen, for example, was founded in 1904 by employees of the pharmaceutical company Bayer, based in the city.
And Wolfsburg, founded in 1945, came about because of the community created to house Volkswagen workers.
But there is a stipulation that because the investors have funded the clubs for more than 20 years, they have an exemption from the rule.
What about RB Leipzig?
Ah yes, the most hated club in Germany. Everyone knows this Bundesliga upstart are funded to the tune of tens of millions of Euros by energy drinks company Red Bull, even if they craftily circumvented the naming rules by calling themselves RasenBallsport Leipzig.
They took over the playing licence of fourth-tier club SSV Markranstadt in 2009, completely rebranded them, and worked their way up the German league structure to their current position challenging at the top of the Bundesliga.
Technically, RB Leipzig haven't broken any 50+1 ownership rules but instead of having thousands of members actively and democratically involved in making decisions, they have just 20 members, all employees of Red Bull.
The fewer members involved, the easier it is to get the decisions you want and it's even easier if they're on the company payroll.
It's one of the reasons why the club are widely disliked by fans of the traditional clubs in Germany.
What are the disadvantages of 50+1?
The most obvious is that the Bundesliga doesn't receive the investment that other leagues enjoy.
If a billionaire investor can't come in and take over a club, it does tend to exacerbate the wealth gap that already exist between Bayern Munich and the rest of the league.
This Saturday, Bayern could secure a ninth successive Bundesliga title and it could be argued that if someone wealthy came in and bought, say, Eintracht Frankfurt, there might be greater competition.
And some argue that a more interesting title race would lead to greater exposure in markets around the world and more money coming into the Bundesliga for everyone.
But there is a great deal of pride in German football that they do things the right and proper way, as they perceive it.
Plus with the emergence of RB Leipzig, with their Red Bull backing, to take on Bayern for the title, you could say it's happened anyway.
Not to mention the fact that Bayern are reigning European champions, so they're not exactly struggling to compete with the wealthier clubs around the continent.
Would it work in England?
There is a lot of ground to make up. While the English game shares the working class routes of its counterpart in Germany, things have certainly moved in different directions in recent years.
The Premier League has embraced outside investment, from the Roubles of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea to the Abu Dhabi billions of Sheikh Mansour at Man City or the profit-seeking investments of the American owners at Liverpool, Man United and Arsenal.
The net result of this is that the Premier League is the richest and most popular league in the world. Revenue from television rights and commercial openings is astronomical, if very unevenly distributed.
So we're so far down the path in England, it would be incredibly difficult to bring in something like the 50+1 rule and return control to the fans.
However, this week has shown us that the fans are a powerful force when united in common cause.
Just look at how quickly the Super League clubs were forced into a humiliating retreat.
With a bit of luck, this whole fiasco will lead to club owners being more accountable to the fans and greater representation for fans within club hierarchies.
Perhaps this could be achieved through legislation as a consequence of the fan-led review set up by the Government.
It could lead to a stronger voice on ticket prices, safe standing and other issues. We eagerly await where the backlash to the European Super League takes us.