People power has been great but football needs real protection from owners
THE GENIE has been let out of the bottle.
And however hard those club owners try, they are struggling to shove it back in.
An historic, turbulent and chaotic week – sparked by the European Super League proposal – has come to an end.
The only thing we can say at the end of it is that things must change. Absolutely. Must. Change. Finally, the good folk who love the game, those who have put up with all manner of disruption, cost and unnecessary upheaval – from kick-off times to VAR – have decided enough is enough.
An enormous swell of opinion is now rushing like a tsunami towards football, and woe betide those who stand in its way.
It’s been generated by the common people, the downtrodden. By those outside the game whose opinions have been shoved to one side in pursuit of naked greed.
We have seen it everywhere this week. At Elland Road as Liverpool’s team coach pulled up.
On the Kings’ Road as Petr Cech tried to enter Stamford Bridge.
And at the Emirates where Friday night fury was unleashed in spectacular fashion.
From those supporters’ groups such as the Spirit of Shankly on Merseyside – rejecting the mealymouthed apology from Reds owner John W Henry – to the Arsenal supporters’ trust who have ‘called for a change in governance,’ the message has been clear and unequivocal.
We shall not be moved.
And now in the latest twist, the players and management teams are ready to plunge the knife into the Dirty Dozen.
Not just into the European
Super League – but also any ideas that UEFA – an utterly discredited UEFA – had of revamping the Champions League.
Those cowards who inhabit that sumptuous palace in Nyon – with its’ appeaser-in-chief Aleksander Ceferin – calling the breakaway group ‘snakes,’ ‘arrogant’ and ‘greedy’ on Tuesday.
And three days later he was welcoming them back over the threshold – without sanction.
If these owners are ultimately successful and you need an invite to the ESL, what’s to stop the Premier League following suit and making that a closed shop too? That will protect their investment. In fact, it will rocket in value.
So, make no mistake, this isn’t the end of the story. It’s merely the end of the beginning. They’ll try again.
And we must act now in anticipation of that.
If we want protection, we need to look to a higher body.
One with legislative teeth – and that means government.
For those of you groaning at the last sentence, I understand. It is the lesser of evils.
But if the children cannot be trusted to play together nicely in the playground, then their toys have to be taken off them.
And that’s all the clubs are to these six owners.
Playthings to be used and abused in the pursuit of cash. These owners are a plague.
They cannot be chopped out – it’s prohibitively expensive – but they need to be stopped or we face the prospect of meaningful footballing competition disappearing forever.