The announcement that a European Super League is at an advanced stage should come as no surprise to football fans, the European Super Clubs want their cakes and eat it, but for the good of football it is time for the rest of us to throw them out !
It is not a surprise that Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham are among 12 clubs who have agreed to join a new European Super League and I have no problem for them to do that, but it should not be at the expense of the rest of the clubs in the Premier League and indeed all of the other European Leagues who have teams that harbour ambitions of joining this elite.
When it came to light that the owners of Liverpool & Manchester United had been plotting behind the backs of even their own boards to form a Super League it was clear that the way they wanted to formulate it was not in the best interests of the rest of us.
They wanted a reduced Premier League and the League Cup to be dispensed with there fore enabling them to take part in two different leagues at the same time without really increasing the number of games played, just making the number they play be against bigger clubs and therefore able to generate more money.
It is therefore time to stand up for the very foundations of our national game and indeed those of all of the European nations, these plans are not in the best interests of anyone other than those in the Super League.
The rest of us will see our incomes reduced and therefore our ability to compete.
But the truth is football is at a crossroads, the Big Six are way above the rest of us and if the Premier League continues as it is , then football as we know it will die, the supporters will grow bored os seeing an elite select few dominate.
So now is the time for all clubs in football to unite and see this proposal as an opportunity to take back our game from the rich few and make it for the masses.
Of course a Premier League without the Big Six would not be as attractive and produce as much revenue as it does now, but that revenue is only relative, Saints might get around £150 million from the Premier League & TV etc but it just means we pay more for average players, if the Premier League revamps itself, revenue will drop but then again so will wages and it will rebalance itself very quickly financially.
A European Super League is not for the supporter who follows his team in person and attends matched whether home or away or at both, it is for the armchair supporter around the world who pays his subscriptions.
Let's be blunt here, we can lay back let this happen and be canon fodder or we can stand up and throw them out and take back our game.
Talking to someone yesterday when the news emerged we both agreed that many Saints fans would be more inclined to go to games if their was more of a chance to be competitive, back in 2010 we were in League One but 55,000 supporters travelled to Wembley for the Johnstones Paint Trophy , at home we still had attendances not much smaller than some in the Premier League, indeed our record crowd is for the final game of the season in 2012 when we played Coventry to secure promotion to the Premier League when 32, 363 squeezed into St Mary's.
Fans want to see their team doing well and they want to see it have a chance of success, look at Everton they have spent on average over £100 million a year on transfers in each of the last 5 seasons, yet they cannot break into the top six or even make it a Big Seven, let's not kid ourselves, the rich have got the monopoly and only occasionally has a team broken it and with each year it gets harder and harder as the rich get richer.
If Saints were playing at Wembley in the FA Cup Final against say Wolverhampton Wanderers next year I guarantee there would be a full house, whichever side won it their fans would be ecstatic, no one would be saying "this doesn't feel right the competition is devalued as Liverpool & Manchester United etc weren't in it"
So this is an opportunity if we take it , a chance for the game to be reclaimed back from faceless Billionaires.
Ironically the people I feel sorry for are the fans of the clubs in the Big Six, although the likes of Liverpool & Manchester United have millions of fans Worldwide, at the core there are still fans who are not armchair supporters, genuine fans who follow their team week in week out and have slowly been pushed aside as their clubs look to maximise their income potential from it's fanbase.
I truly feel for them, like all of us they follow their clubs but they hate what they are becoming, I want to see their clubs thrown out of the Premier League due to their actions, I know that if they are there will be hundreds of thousands of ordinary supporters devastated.
The Big Six know that they cannot survive without fans and they are worried that they will lose supporters and due to that income, hence their desire to stay in the Premier League and throw crumbs to those begging at their table, but enough is enough football needs to unite and not just block the plans, but throw them out of the Premier League now.
If we do that then within a few years football in England would be competitive again, there would not be such a big gap between the Premier League and the Championship, all teams would have a chance of a top 10 finish and challenging for a place in Europe if not a trophy or two, it would not be dominated by an elite and lets be blunt it may be a Big Six but most of them just make up the numbers in terms of winning the League these days.
I also have doubts that a European Super League would prosper on it's own and clearly the clubs fear that as well, the World Club Championships is hardly breaking box office records when they play it and after a while people would tire of seeing the same clubs playing each other season in season out.
The Premier League is still a bigger draw Worldwide than the Champions League, and although a European Super League would dilute that it wouldn't take everything away and lets be honest here, they want everything, every crumb on the table, they want their cake and eat it !