While the “Big 6” Premier League clubs threaten to rip apart club football for their own financial gain, smaller clubs, like our very own Southport FC, are according to rowdie.co.uk more in need of your support than ever before.
Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have announced with 6 other European clubs that they intend to form their own closed European Super League, to miss condemnation from fans, clubs, governing bodies and even governments across Europe.
It’s undeniable that the move is rooted in financial growth for the clubs involved, who would stand the make hundreds of millions of pounds now the breakaway competition is back by JP Morgan Chase.
According to BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan, one source informed him that some clubs are referring to their own supporters as “legacy fans” and are instead focussed on “fans of the future.”
It’s clear that the clubs involved are willing to forsake their own fans, in search of riches promised by overseas fans who would lap up the competition, despite an overwhelming distaste in Europe.
Particularly since 1978, when Southport FC toppled out of the Football League, it has been easy for Southport residents to find a reason to ignore their local football team. A 20-mile proximity to some of the world’s biggest clubs, an unflattering competitive record, a stadium in need of a great deal of maintenance and care. Any Southport fan will tell you that the revelation of their allegiance is often followed by “oh right… but do you have a ‘proper’ team?”
But particularly in the last several years the Haig Avenue-based club has slowly started to rebuild, and given both the shameful manoeuvres of the big six, combined with the significant hardships placed on the club by the coronavirus pandemic, every football-loving Sandgrounder should at least afford the club a chance when fixtures restart.
A once poorly Main Stand post renovation is now one of the finest in the division. The club retains the services of the most successful manager in its history. And match goers would find something that has been lacking in the Premier League for several years, genuine sport and genuine competition.
Every year, only a handful of clubs could potentially win the Premier League or the Champions League. Even the unlikely victory of Leicester City, while a welcome change, was still a victory for one of the richest clubs in the world.
The situation in the National League North is the polar opposite, where you could point to 10-15 clubs in the division, including Southport, and correctly say that their playoff chances are not impossible.
Through coronavirus, the club was cruelly misled by its own league, who promised grant funding to support their insistence the season could start with no fans, only to find that said financial injection were actually loans, in stark contrast to the league’s own ethos of financial fair play.
Yes, Messi, Ronaldo, Salah, Kroos, M’Bappe, Neymar, Lewandowski and co will not be gracing the Haig Avenue pitch any time soon, but the club has waited patiently for years for the backing of its own town, and there has never been a better time than now.
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