The modern game is a completely different beast to the one of even 10 years ago and despite football’s governing bodies attempting to control it; the owners of the big clubs now possess pretty much all the power. It is these people who control our beloved teams and can run them as they see fit. It can’t be long before these money obsessed businessmen attempt to breakaway from the domestic leagues and form a, no, The European Super League.

Football has become one of the most lucrative investments in the world and has attracted interest from some of the richest and most powerful people from across the global in the last decade. From the Glazer empire who own Premier League champions Manchester United to the Qatari Royal Family who now own Malaga CF in Spain, the influence is growing by the year which in turn limits the effectiveness of FIFA, CONMEBAL and UEFA; never mind the national football associations. The new financial restraints introduced by UEFA which come into affect from the start of next season will have little effect on the top clubs.

It has long been assumed that sooner or later football would fall foul financially due to the huge amount being invested and spent within the game. It is absurd that Manchester United can continue to announce record profits every year when everyone knows how much the Glazer family owe the banks. When these figures are announced the small print at the bottom actually states how these figures effect the overall financial state of the club but the headlines are all that is reported. Two years ago, one big club announced record profits; it was only in the final paragraph that they actually stated they were still heavily in debt.

The start of the 2011/12 season was delayed in Italy and Spain due to financial issues. The top clubs in each country have a monopoly over the revenue that the league generates which ensures their ability to remain at the top and decreases the chances of smaller teams ever challenging for the major honours. The opening weekends of the Premier League season in England have seen the two Manchester sides demolish their nearest rivals and almost guarantee that it is a two way fight for the title this season. In Spain, La Liga will be won by Barcelona or Real Madrid and we knew that long before a ball was even kicked.

Once upon a time the Scottish League was written off because only Celtic or Rangers could ever win it. This has actually now spread throughout the major leagues in Europe and you can predict who will win almost every league from just a small handful of hopefuls in every nation. Whilst supporters of the top sides gloat gleefully about how successful they are, the smaller clubs face an eternal struggle to survive.

The gap in quality in domestic leagues is also diminishing with every passing year too. The Premier League advertises itself as the best league in the world when realistically the overall standard is decreasing year on year. Whilst you can argue there are now five teams that could win the league everyone truly knows it will be between two. Thus, there are about 12 teams who will slug it out all year in order to retain their TV money to ensure the happiness of the chairman. There can be little issue taken with football being run as a business but when profit is held as the ultimate goal from the season, something has been lost that will never return.

The whole reason many people play, and participate in sport is in an attempt to win/be successful. The Olympic motto, which defines all sport, is ‘citius, altius, fortius’ – ‘faster, higher, and stronger’. In years gone by it was also fun to simply compete, however, those times are gone now. Everything has become about winning and trying to maximise profits.

It is rather vulgar that in times of a recession football clubs are still gloating about how much money fans invested in season tickets, or rather how much money they have conned out of supporters.

In 2000 the elite clubs formed a group called the G14 which terrified the governing bodies. They feared that the top clubs could breakaway and set up their own European Super League where they would have no say on how things were managed. This actually lead to Michel Platini pleading with them to come back to FIFA and UEFA in return for guaranteed insurance if players were to get injured whilst on international duty. Whilst this appeased many of the member clubs they still set up the European Club Association.

Domestic football is becoming less and less appealing for the supporters of clubs with no realistic chance of success. The new people running football will soon not be interested in travelling within their country if there is a possibility of entertaining sides like Barcelona and Milan every week. Although many football fans oppose the idea it could be more appealing to pay for a season ticket if you are guaranteed to see some of the best players in the world every week. When you consider that Arsenal fans have had to pay 6.1% extra this season and have seen two of their best players sold it would almost certainly be more appealing.

We live in a world where people want everything on demand and insist on getting value for money. The Champions League offers some particularly interesting first round games but the predictability is starting to affect the game as a whole. The set up requires modification and change if the game is to remain as popular and as affluent.

Whether we admit it or not it is the leading teams that will decide the future of our game and in truth a European Super League would probably improve the overall quality of the game at the elite level as well as re-establishing the game domestically with real and proper competition.