This is fans’ chance to push for change while the force is with them
The cringing apologies for the European Super League fiasco have been made and emollient words offered by the big six owners – their talk is of rebuilding bridges and trust.
They hope this will be the end of the matter.
Short though football supporters’ attention spans tend to be – trophies and shiny new signings are prone to work to reset and erase – it does not feel as if the collective memory card can just be wiped in this case.
The fan protests at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground yesterday against the Glazers show how the rank and file have been buoyed by this week’s unexpected and joyous victory for the common man. There is a realisation in the air that their small voices can, after all, be heard.
It would be naive to believe that it was purely fan power that sunk the ESL. The internal opposition within the clubs – in a few cases expressed publicly – from players and management hit home, as did government threats of intervention, but the cacophony of protest provided the straw that broke the cartel’s back. The choice now for the supporters at these clubs is whether to push on and try to remove those owners who brought shame to their institutions.
This is their moment to strike while the force is with them.
Sunday sees the Carabao Cup final at Wembley involving two of the plotters – Manchester
City and Tottenham. It also sees the tentative return of club fans with 2,000 from each among the 8,000 at the game.
An opportunity to enjoy live football again doubles as a chance to speak up. It is unlikely there will be much in the way of protest against Sheikh Mansour from City supporters, despite the revulsion amongst their followers at their involvement in the carve-up.
Abu Dhabi benevolence has not only transformed their football club but helped to regenerate the east of Manchester too. Tottenham, even though they were really just chancers trying to get in with the cool crowd, could be a different story. Daniel Levy might want to keep a low profile. Across London, Stan Kroenke is facing a mass protest against his ownership at Arsenal ahead of tonight’s Premier League game against Everton.
One might imagine there would be something similar at Anfield against John W Henry tomorrow before the Newcastle game given the sense of betrayal felt on Merseyside.
Henry was supposed to be the lesser of the three evils when it came to the American venture capitalists who have bought into the top English football clubs – and Arsenal – but judge as you find, and he has been found with his fingerprints all over the crime scene.
Likewise, any lingering trust United fans had in the Glazer operation has been traded in the chase for a fast buck. Nothing Joel Glazer, left, says will alter that.
The Glazers have proved impermeable to dissent in the past over the millions the family have leveraged out of the club since their takeover 16 years ago, but this will be a test of their skin thickness.
It is easier to insulate yourself against the noise when you are thousands of miles away and no one can force the Americans to sell up, but concerted calls for them to take their baseball bats home will carry.
If anything good is to come out of the demise of this grubby project of self-enrichment then it might be the exit from the English game of some of the rogues behind it. They will not be missed.
Their small voices can be heard after all