Android Studio – Gradle error in Android Studio: Could not find “com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.1.1.”

I am trying to import a project from Eclipse into Android Studio.
In Eclipse I exported it to gradle and then imported it into Android Studio.
Note: I am new to gradle and have no insight to problem.
Now I get this error:

> Configure project :
    Running gradle version: 6.8

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring root project 'aBooks'.
 > Could not resolve all artifacts for configuration ':classpath'.
 > Could not find com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.1.1.
 Searched in the following locations:
   - 
https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/com/android/tools/build/gradle/7.1.1/gradle-7.1.1.pom
 If the artifact you are trying to retrieve can be found in the repository but without metadata in 'Maven POM' format, you need to adjust the 'metadataSources { ... }' of the repository declaration.
 Required by:
     project : 

The link given leads to a “404 Page not found”.

The gradle files on my system with “gradle-7” are:

The gradle file :

buildscript {
// added crl  https://tomgregory.com/anatomy-of-a-gradle-build-script/
repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}
println "Running gradle version: $gradle.gradleVersion"
dependencies {
    classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.1.1'  // **original error here**
    // https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.android.tools.build/gradle
   // implementation group: 'com.android.tools.build', name: 'gradle', version: '7.1.0-alpha01'
    //  https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.android.tools.build/gradle/7.1.0-alpha01
}
}

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'   // 'android'


dependencies {
implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '*.jar')
implementation project(':CRLibs')
implementation 'com.android.support:support-annotations:28.0.0'
implementation 'androidx.legacy:legacy-support-v4:1.0.0'

}

android {
compileSdk 26
buildToolsVersion "32.0.0"

buildFeatures {
    prefab true
    prefabPublishing true
}


sourceSets {
    main {
        manifest.srcFile 'AndroidManifest.xml'
        java.srcDirs = ['src']
        resources.srcDirs = ['src']
        aidl.srcDirs = ['src']
        renderscript.srcDirs = ['src']
        res.srcDirs = ['res']
        assets.srcDirs = ['assets']
    }

    // Move the tests to tests/java, tests/res, etc...
    instrumentTest.setRoot('tests')

    // Move the build types to build-types/<type>
    // For instance, build-types/debug/java, build-types/debug/AndroidManifest.xml, 
...
    // This moves them out of them default location under src/<type>/... which would
    // conflict with src/ being used by the main source set.
    // Adding new build types or product flavors should be accompanied
    // by a similar customization.
    debug.setRoot('build-types/debug')
    release.setRoot('build-types/release')
}
compileOptions {
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
dependenciesInfo {
    includeInApk true
    includeInBundle true
}

// no joy
plugins { // added crl https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/gradle-plugin#groovy
    id 'com.android.application' version '7.0.0-alpha13' apply false
    id 'com.android.library' version '7.0.0-alpha13' apply false
    id 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android' version '1.5.31' apply false
}

}

I tried changing ‘7.1.1’ to ‘7.2’ no change. I have no clue on how to fix this. All the answers given in my searches do not match the versions here or were no help.

EDIT1:
Added info. when I go to file->Project Structure & Project, I see

Note that the Gradle version is blank. If I enter 6.8 or 7.1.1 and click OK, I get the same results and then if I go back the Gradle version is blank.
Gradle version 6.8 is identified at the current version(see line 2 of the error message. Don’t know if this means anything.
This is the list of my Gradel-6* files: