IT'S PURE GREED
By Oliver Holt Chief Sports Writer
Bloated by its lust for money, English club football sank to a new low yesterday when it rushed towards the wholesale betrayal of its fans.
But club chairmen were too busy counting their cash to realise their grotesque deal had exposed the league once and for all as little more than a vehicle for the naked greed of very rich men.
The Premier League has become a monument to disloyalty and extortion - a garish, preening poster boy for what's left of Rip-Off Britain.
It's Loadsamoney waving his bundle of notes in the air and mocking the supporters.
So to Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, and all the proud owners of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest. Well done. A whore on a street corner has got more honour left than the Premier League now.
What happens now to the bloke who hasn't missed a league game at Anfield or Upton Park for more than 30 years?
Isn't it bad enough that the Premier League has done its best to disenfranchise him and his family already with their rocketing ticket prices? How can clubs expect true fans to fork out for a league game in Sydney or Singapore.
Just as bad, their ill-conceived plans have compromised the very integrity of the competition. There is talk that the games abroad will be seeded so that top teams avoid each other. The fixtures are being manipulated and once that happens, the credibility of the league is null and void.
It's a betrayal of the essence of one of the lynchpins of British sport and it stinks.
This is a stupid question to ask in a capitalist society, I know, but haven't the Premier League clubs got enough money already?
Sadly, it seems their greed has well and truly got the better of them this time.
Some people have been warning for some time now that one day English football will push its fans too far.
Yesterday's news may well mean that this day has finally arrived
