The paper's original story claimed that Qatar was in the process of creating a 24-team summer league from Europe's top clubs, with teams to be paid £175 million each for taking part.
But early last Monday morning Eurosport-Yahoo!'s checks into the story revealed that it was clearly based on a two-day-old spoof story from a French humour website. Our investigations showed that many of the details, and even the accompanying picture, had been lifted straight from Les Cahiers du Football.
Quickly, word spread across the internet that The Times had been hoaxed - and despite initially sticking to its guns, The Times has now belatedly admitted that it had been fooled.
In a column headlined 'When we are wrong, we will hold our hands up. It's the right thing to do', the newspaper's football editor Tony Evans said it had appeared increasingly clear that the newspaper had been duped, and that their checks had not been stringent enough in the rush to publication.
The Times had initially launched a spirited defence of its March 13 story that Qatar was to launch a 'Dream Football League' even though a French website said the scoop was based on its own spoof and that the paper had been the victim of a hoax.
"It all came out of my imagination," Jerome Latta, the editor of Les Cahiers du Football, told Reuters of the tale that the Qataris were proposing a new money-spinning summer tournament offering stunning financial rewards.
The Qatar Football Association swiftly distanced itself from the story, saying they had no involvement and had heard nothing, but the Times stood firmly behind reporter Oliver Kay, insisting their scoop had nothing to do with the website's version.
Kay, the newspaper's chief football correspondent, was equally adamant, at the time telling Reuters: "I've been amused by the speculation about the source of this story. I can guarantee you 100 per cent, 1,000 per cent, 175 million per cent, that my story had nothing to do with any website, spoof or otherwise.
"I've no idea about their modus operandi. What I know is that my source is very good, the information is very good and that there is more where that story came from."
Still, though, intense speculation on social media websites continued and on Monday Evans conceded that the Times had made a "massive mistake".
"Because so many significant people in football did not laugh off the idea, it seemed that the story could be genuine," Evans wrote.
"The warning signs - that no one had heard specific details of the DFL or seen its plans - were missed. In principle, the idea was possible. There were plenty to attest to that.
"In reality, the story appears to have been invented and had just enough plausibility to be seductive."
On to the rest of the day's newspapers, and the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Star and Daily Telegraph all lead their back pages with the 'Horror tackle' by Wigan's Callum McManaman that went unpunished in the match against Newcastle at the weekend.
It's the Telegraph which pushes the story hardest, giving it the headlines, 'The Ugly Game' and tying it to a story about John Terry being hit by a coin.
The Star claims that Newcastle assistant manager "had to be stopped from attacking" McManaman "after his horror lunge put Massadio Haldara in hospital".
The Sun says that Frank Lampard also had coins thrown at him, using the line "Lampard gets a pounding" after their photographer managed to snap a £1 coin flying mid-air at the midfielder's head.
In the day's transfer gossip, Arsenal are to make a big new offer to Swansea for Michel Vorm (Metro), Reading could sell Pavel Pogrebnyak to Zenit St Petersburg if they get relegated (Daily Mirror), and Wolfsburg want to nab Per Mertesacker from Arsenal.
Paper Round isn't so sure about that last rumour, though. Mertesacker simply hasn't reached the world-beating level normally required for Arsene Wenger to sell a player off.
