Plenty of outrage but not too much surprise

Not since Marks & Spencer announced it was taking Aldi to court over the latter’s version of its much-loved Colin the Caterpillar cake has the country been united in such condemnation.

The cacophony of outrage in response to the proposed European Super League was quite something.

England’s ‘Big Six’ - which inexplicably includes Arsenal and Tottenham - were among 12 teams to sign up for the closed-shop megabucks competition.

But within 48 hours all had pulled out and by the time you read this the entire project may well have toppled.

The plan was criticised for all manner of reasons, but chiefly that silly amounts of cash have poisoned the top echelons of football and ripped the heart out of the game.

The competition’s structure is the antithesis of romantic stories like Leicester

City’s remarkable seven-year journey from League One to champions of England.

At current League One side Gillingham is where

I experienced the vast majority of my limited footballing education, but crude songs and questionable pies in the Priestfield stands do not make me one of the four billion plus fans this competition is apparently aimed at.

But it turns out many among that huge figure won’t be tuning in either.

Does that matter? I don’t think so.

This edition of a breakaway tournament may be dead in the water but don’t be shocked to see it reborn as something equally terrible soon. The earning potential of markets like Africa and Asia means the protestations of long-term fans fall on the deaf ears of billionaire owners for whom this has only ever been about money. Isn’t everything? Are we really shocked when for years greed and cronyism has been seeping in to our institutions?

As the poem famously goes: First they came for the billion-pound government contracts, and I did not speak out...

‘This edition of a breakaway tournament maybedead in the water but don’t be shocked to see it reborn as something equally terrible soon’