European Super League implosion victory for fans, but fight against greed not over

Football is saved in a victory for fans, but the fight against greed and the rich owners loathed by those who love the game is far from over.

Arsenal's Stan Kroenke, Manchester United's Joel Glazer, Liverpool's John W Henry, Tottenham Hotspur's chairman Daniel Levy, Chelsea's Roman Abramovich, and Manchester City's Ferran Soriano. Pictures: Various sources / AFP

Let us all warm to the bonfire of the vanities, the blaze claiming the reputations of the arrogant. We all knew the enemy within English football: Joel Glazer and Ed Woodward with their creed of greed at Manchester United; John W Henry with his craven “This Means More” mantra; his This is Brandfield-grasping of the furlough cash at Liverpool, which was hastily returned; and Stan Kroenke with his silent contempt for Arsenal fans, his persistent putting financial return before footballing. We all knew the American carpetbaggers had ridden into town, turning it into the Wild West.

We could all see the company they increasingly kept, building bonds with Joe Lewis and his sidekick Daniel Levy at Tottenham Hotspur. That was to be expected. That quartet, the Americans and Lewis, were all about the money.

The other two of the shamed “big six”, Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City, had seemed actually interested in the football, in the pursuit of trophies, and their supporter base credited their benign influence, their investment in infrastructure and academies as well as playing and coaching talent. Their motivation seemed more about enhancing their image in the West, not swelling their bank balance. Abramovich and Mansour are hardly short of a billion or two.

Squalid sextet

But what a squalid little sextet they all now appear, Glazer, Henry, Kroenke, Lewis, Abramovich and Mansour, owners loathed by those who love the game, gloriously skewered by Gary Neville on Sky Sports, denounced by dukes. Even the prime minister, not naturally a man with his finger on the racing pulse of the national game, gave Glazer and his egregious company a jolly good kicking.

Football supporters demonstrate against the now-abandoned European Super League plan. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

Can they recover? Some will step down, run out of town, mocked on their way like Woodward is. Woodward is a brilliant revenue-generator, the skilled money man to nail down that lucrative club-sponsorship tyre deal in Thailand, but lacking the awareness and humility to understand how clubs of United’s stature should conduct themselves.

Affront to history

The European Super League (ESL) was an affront to the history, ethos and endless challenge of the European Cup and Woodward, employed by the club of Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson, should have run a mile from the concept and competition.

Woodward became Icarus, believing in himself, in the Glazers, in the naive possibility that he could write off decades of marvellous duelling between clubs in Europe and swap it for El Plastico, meetings between some of the stellar clubs in the continental firmament but actually not those like Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich who have conquered Europe more often than United. The arrogance. And let’s not get started on Arsenal, Spurs or City, who have yet to be crowned champions of Europe. The whole ESL fiasco is an exercise in hubris.

It would be easy to sit back and laugh at their sudden collapse, at the sight of first Chelsea and then City seeing sense, shamed into it, and breaking away from the breakaway, leaving the Americans and Lewis as the rebels without a clue. They will all turn back, then re-embark on the road to contrition. Some will hide. That’s Kroenke’s default position.

Millions on a doomed scheme

They are cowards, leaving others to face the music, and the music is deafening. Their representatives will have to start rebuilding trust, going into Old Trafford, the Emirates Stadium and elsewhere, apologising and acknowledging mistakes.

The “shamed six” spent millions on advice for this doomed scheme, so here’s some for free. Ditch the hopeless bankers and useless advisers, individuals who could have read the room. Even the players, enjoying such lavish salaries from the owners, were beginning to rebel. Those who popped up above the parapet first, the conscientious likes of James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw, will be eternally saluted for taking a stance.

Harry Kane? England captain? Where were you? In pivotal 48-hour periods like this, and the ESL was so short-lived it didn’t even have a pre-season, people’s principles come under intense scrutiny. Woodward failed. Shaw didn’t.

The “shamed six” need to learn some honesty, some humility. One of the bankers on the board at JP Morgan, the controversial bankers who offered a seductive line of credit for the Super Leaguers, posted that the “best advice for staying resilient in challenging times” was to “stay true to your values”. Well, that drew a toxic response from football’s massed roving army on Twitter. Values? ESL? No chance. Just devalued.

Football’s moral compass

How naive is JP Morgan to believe its social media would not be ambushed? The post came from the chairman of JP Morgan’s risk-management committee and fans will be surprised to discover the bank has one. The bank needs to acquire some better understanding of football, if it dares venture in again, and learn some scruples.

The “shamed six” and JP Morgan clearly do not have a moral compass but this whole period has shown that football does. So fair play to the fans of Chelsea who inundated their chairman, Bruce Buck, with sulphurous letters and emails talking of their sadness about ending long, emotional associations with their club.

Alexis Mac Allister of Brighton & Hove Albion warms up wearing a T-shirt with a message in protest against the European Super League. Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

So fair play to the Liverpool fans who so embarrassed the club by demanding their famous banners, homages to Anfield legends, be removed from the Kop in disgust at Henry’s actions. So fair play to the heartbroken City fans who have gone on daytime TV and called out their owners.

This has been a victory for the fans and an emphatic defeat for the owners. But it’s not over. Fortunately, the fans individually, and collectively through the Football Supporters’ Association, will keep campaigning, keep complaining. Fortunately, Westminster appears to have a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport leader in Oliver Dowden wanting to keep the pressure on the shamed sextet.

The fight against bad or misguided owners is far from over. But there is hope. We all knew the menace seeping into the boardrooms. Now the resistance movement is ready.

The Times

Brighton & Hove Albion players warm up by sending a message of protest. Picture: Neil Hall / Getty Images