The proposed ASEAN Super League (ASL) was shot down by a number of countries, including Malaysia, who could not envision its inception, due to an already gruelling domestic schedule.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), who were present at an ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) meeting on May 20 that poured cold water on the idea, say the ambitious concept simply wasn't feasible.
"FAM did not agree with the ASL because it was going to interfere with the calendar of our domestic league," FAM secretary general Datuk Hamidin Amin told Harian Metro.
"Many of them did not agree with this new league due to this reason. Besides that, getting quality teams to compete would have also been a problem."
The ASL would have had to get the approval of all ASEAN nations for the league kick off, scheduled for September. It had already been postponed several times, due to the challenge of coming up with a palatable concept.
The league would have also had to be organised in a manner that didn't disrupt the AFC Cup and AFC Champions League (ACL), the two top club tournaments organised by the region's ruling body.
In addition to that, the ASL would have had to work around the countries' domestic competitions, such as the FA Cup and Malaysia Cup.
Initially mooted in 2005, the proposal surrounding the 10-team ASL was led by former Football Association of Singapore president Zainudin Nordin.
It was suggested that up to 10 AFF member nations, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, take part in a superstar league, with a franchise concept. Adding to the challenge was that each competing nation would have to fork out a whopping $7million simply to compete.
The Johor Crown Prince, the FAM president and Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) owner, dismissed the ASL last year, stating he would rather concentrate on getting his club to the ACL first.
When revealing that the ASL was a non-starter on June 23, Football Confederation (AFC) general-secretary Datuk Windsor Paul John said the league needed to show that it could "organise the competition under the structure of the AFC and around AFC competition schedules".