Liverpool have been forced into an about-turn on the ticket pricing that prompted an Anfield walkout, abandoning controversial plans and issuing a full apology to supporters. Fenway Sports Group's restructuring of matchday costs has been ripped up and replaced with a new deal for fans, freezing existing seating prices for the next two seasons and ending the categorisation of ticket prices.
The club's hierarchy has been in emergency talks since Saturday evening, rattled and appalled by the scale of the demonstration when 10,000 Liverpool fans left the stadium in the 77th minute against Sunderland. Supporters chose that moment as a symbolic gesture because the most expensive seat next season was initially set at pounds 77.
Liverpool argued that only 1,200 tickets were to be sold at that price over the year, but many thousands more were to be put on sale well in excess of pounds 59 - the current highest price for an -Anfield seat on a match day. That pounds 59 ceiling has now been restored.
Liverpool have agreed to a two-year freeze. They also intend to retain the cheaper pricing for younger fans which were broadly welcomed amid the controversy of last week's contentious ticket announcement.
In a 937-word letter, the owner, John W Henry, chairman Tom Werner and president Mike Gordon attempted to repair the damage.
"It has been a tumultuous week," they wrote. "On behalf of everyone at Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool Football Club we would like to apologise for the distress caused by our ticket pricing plan for the 2016?17 season.
"The three of us have been particularly troubled by the perception that we don't care about our supporters, that we are greedy, and that we are attempting to extract personal profits at the club's expense. Quite the opposite is true.
"We have never taken a single penny out of the football club. Instead we have injected vast sums of our own money to improve the playing squad and modernise LFC's infrastructure - exemplified by the pounds 120?million advance from FSG to build the new Main Stand.
"On the other hand, part of the ticketing plan we got wrong. A great many of you have objected strongly to the pounds 77 price level of our most expensive GA [general admission] seats and expressed a clear expectation that the club should forego any increased revenue from raising prices on general admission tickets in the current environment. Message received.
"We are further announcing that this plan shall be in effect for both the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons. For the next two seasons, LFC will not earn a single additional pound from increasing general admission ticket prices. We believe we have demonstrated a willingness to listen carefully, reconsider our position, and act decisively."
Fans' groups last night welcomed the club's swift change of position. "We did not expect this," Jay McKenna, the Spirit of Shankly spokesman, said. "It is unprecedented that they have apologised, remarkable, but it is the right approach."
Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher wrote on Twitter: "Great decision by the club and great news for the fans."
English football as a whole is -being urged to reassess its financial priorities given the pounds 8?billion coming into the game over the next three years from broadcasters here and overseas.
For FSG it has been a sobering few days. It completed its takeover of Liverpool in 2010 following three years of anti-ownership protests against the regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and Saturday was a harrowing reminder of those dark days on Merseyside.
Saturday was a response to exe-cutive decisions rather than an anti FSG protest, but, as the letter demonstrates, there is consternation in the United States at how the situation escalated. Liverpool's owners feel that they have tried to engage with fans more than any major club in England.
As FSG stated, the pounds 120 million Main Stand is under construction with an interest-free loan from Liver-pool's owner - that is the kind of financial commitment that prompted David Moores to first sell the club in 2007 and caused the demise of Hicks and Gillett as they promised and failed to raise the funds to give Liverpool a new home. FSG has also made no profit from its Liverpool ownership.
Nevertheless, a debate as to how well Liverpool have used their financial resources since FSG bought the club is perpetual, the wastage on some players self-evident in the club's position of ninth in the Premier League. That did not help the club's executives when arguing how matchday revenue would help the club compete.
Liverpool fans were planning further protests in the coming weeks, but FSG will hope those - like their initial ticket plans - will be ditched.