Tuesday, 20 April 2021, 1:01 pm
Suffocating the grassroots. Mocking the working class
origins of the game. World football, and primarily European
club football, has long done away with loyalties in favour
of cash and contract. The professionalization of the game
has seen a difficult relationship between fan, spectator and
sporting management, none better exemplified than the price
of tickets, the role of branding and sponsorship.
The
apotheosis of this has arrived in the form of a proposed
breakaway European Super League. Like a mafia-styled cartel,
twelve of Europe’s elite football clubs have banded
together to create their own, sealed competition. The