Once again the last people they gave a thought to were the ones the game exists to serve.
The ones who created their club’s identity, inherited a love passed down through generations, suffered all the bad times, travelled the length of Europe to help them over the line on the biggest of nights. The game’s lifeblood: the loyal supporter.
Or, as the owners of these “Super League” clubs contemptuously refer to them now: “The legacy fans.”
The ones they are saddled with and who view them with suspicion.
Not the ones they are after, who they call “fans of the future” at whom their “product” is now aimed: the millions of pay-per-view customers yet to be converted in Asia, Africa and beyond.
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Football is the working-class game industrial revolution Britain gave to the world.
One started as a source of diversion and pride for the local working-class when they finished grafting on Saturday lunch-time.
One that saw British and German soldiers bond in No-Man’s Land during World War One.
In the early-1990s it was stolen from the working-class with the formation of the Premier League, pay-per-view TV, unaffordable ticket prices and over-pandering to the corporate sector.
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But this hostile takeover from capitalist robber barons who sniffed untapped wealth in the English game takes theft to a different level.
Because they are trying to kill the one thing you always need in sport: competition.
The concept that allows exciting new teams to emerge, creates unforgettable giant-killings, gives fans the bitter lows of failure which make the highs so much more enjoyable.
But competition is a risk to profits. So they’ve chosen to close it down and fill their boots with billions through turning the game into a vacuous content-streamer for new markets.
(Image: PA)
Which is why the backlash from fans groups has been furious and unanimous.
We hoped after the past year of soulless games played in empty stadiums that owners would realise that football without fans is nothing and reach out to their most loyal customers.
Instead they have kicked them in the teeth while trampling on their heritage.
This blatant, unjustifiable avarice has made many fans of those six clubs embarrassed and ashamed to support something that is usually their greatest source of pride.
This move takes football so far away from its grassroots they may as well play on the moon.
Or maybe that’s their next move.
