‘Super League collapse good news for all fans’
WOW, what a mad few days it has been. A rollercoaster ride from start to finish – with no shortage of twists and turns along the way. Goodbye European Super League, we hardly knew ye.
The wretched band of multi-billionaire owners-cum-wannabee robbers behind this scheme and their sordid greed has been very well-documented. And there are many things I and many other football fans will never forgive them for
But perhaps the worst of them all? Making me genuinely want Leeds United to win a football match! Their protest t-shirts were excellent, and only surpassed by the trombonist playing ABBA’s ‘Money Money Money’ when Liverpool got off their coach, and then during their game too.
Because make no mistake about it, for two short days – all football rivalries flew out the window and we were united as one. Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Manchester United, Arsenal; it didn’t matter so long as we shared a vision for where profit was not more important than community fabric and social history.
I never dreamed that I would be so pleased to see a thousand Chelsea fans protesting down the mean streets of the Kings Road, or that Petr Cech would be dispatched to try and calm them down. Never has a homemade carboard sign demanding the right for a cold night trip to Stoke been so prescient.
The glorified bandits behind the push to completely eradicate the possibility of sporting merit earning you European qualification, or playing crap earning your relegation, will inevitably try again when they think the timing is right.
But let’s just hope that everybody involved, whether it be greedy men in the boardroom, or your average punter on the terraces, remembers this latest sorry saga. Because if you can beat greed once, you can do it again.
And the unity in which clubs, fans, and even national and international football associations responded – shows exactly how much was at stake. Everything. Not just the soul and character of football, but also its future sustainability and financial health. Because paying the bills isn’t unimportant, especially when you’re a vital heartbeat of your community and at the grassroots level.
So when the prospect of six of this country’s temporarily richest (but certainly not best) clubs running away to form their own private club was raised, the already yawning inequalities which shame football were put under the microscope. As Gary Neville rightly pointed out, sides in th eh National Nil LeagueLhhaveb been goingi bust, and clubs in Leagues One and Two are believed to be close.
But in the end, the basic spirit of competition won the day. Clubs should be rewarded for success, and punished for failure. Do Arsenal have a bigger right to European football than the likes of West Ham and Leicester? Of course not. Wigan have won a major trophy more recently than Tottenham, and they’re in the League One relegation zone! Players and fans have the right to aspire to reach the top. Bournemouth made the Premier League, so why not us? Hull and Swansea have played l d iE in Europe, so why h not us? ? If they hadn’t caved, there was a probably unstoppable movement to kick the breakaway clubs out of English football altogether. That really would have been a sight to behold, and perhaps the only thing that could have saved Grimsby from relegation!
Instead supporter groups and so-called ordinary clubs have discovered just how much power we have when angry and united on a common goal. Let’s hope that’s a lesson we all remember. Because if we do, we might just change the game for the better.