Fans 1 Greed 0 in rare triumph for people power
JUST for once, people power beat the people in power.
That’s what killed off the European Super League planned by greedy football bosses.
Not the Government, and certainly not Boris Johnson, despite his opportunist leap on the protest bandwagon.
Big money was humbled by a spontaneous tsunami of disbelief and anger among millions of fans.
And not just them, but people like me who don’t go to matches yet still understand the importance of football in our national life. There is a lesson here.
The high and mighty have to listen, and take heed, of voices from below – if they think their position of power is threatened.
Ted Heath did a U-turn to save RollsRoyce and shipbuilding on the Clyde. Thatcher’s Tories had to retreat from the poll tax. Johnson belatedly, and with illgrace, finally conceded free school meals during the summer after a campaign led by soccer star Marcus Rashford.
Of course, there is no guarantee of success if you have a go, only a guarantee of failure if you don’t. And public support doesn’t always deliver.
Junior hospital doctors fighting the imposition of harsh new contracts were crushed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who now poses as saviour of the NHS.
And most poignant of all, the miners’ years-long strike in the mid-eighties could not halt the wholesale destruction of their industry, their union, their jobs and their communities. Theirs were popular causes, but the powerful felt strong enough to override public support and inflict their will.
Not this time. The bankers, the megarich owners and the cash-bloated agents all got a bloody nose.
It has been a very satisfying week for me and, I hope, you. If only it could happen more often.
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Big money was humbled by a tsunami of disbelief and anger