RICHARD ORD: European Super League, Tom Hanks and ice cubes

There’s a lot of anger about the new European Super League Though, to be fair, there’s always something to be angry about in football.

No sport comes close to incessant whining than football. Okay they call it ‘expert analysis’ but does it have to be delivered in such exasperated and earnest tones?

Football is simple to understand. Blokes running the game make billions. Blokes playing the game make millions. And the millions who watch it moan like there’s no tomorrow. Which, given the hoo-hah about the ESL, you’d think there wasn’t.

This European Super League is just another welcome log on the footy whine fire.

And if you think plans for a breakaway football European Super League are hard to stomach, just wait until you hear about the next step … a World Super-Duper Look-at-Me League!

Within a few months we’ll soon be bored with watching the European footballing elite of Tottenham Hotspurs and Juventus plying their trade and start demanding even more bang for our buck.

A World Super-Duper Look-at-Me League is the next logical step, only this time, why not throw a few high-profile Hollywood actors into the mix too?

Brazilian giants Flamengo versus Manchester United at Wembley with Tom Hanks refereeing. If enough people will pay to watch it, it’ll happen.

And forget that ‘legacy playing surface’ of grass. If more money can be made holding the matches on ice cubes, then ice cubes it is.

Obviously, when the new Super Duper League is announced, probably during the expected third wave of coronavirus, there will be howls of protest - mainly, it has to be said, from those in the European Super League who haven’t been invited to join the World Super-Duper Look-at-Me League - but it’s going to happen. If the money’s right, of course.

Personally, the thought of tuning in to watch Real Madrid playing Barcelona one week then Juventus v Liverpool the next is quite appealing. Burnley v Brighton not so.

What strikes me about this latest shock development in football is the suggestion that the European Super League is all about money with little consideration for the fans. Isn’t that how the Premier League operates?

Greed is the word being bandied about. Fans seem to be saying ‘we don’t want those greedy so-and-so’s dictating football.’ Presumably they just want to stick with the current greedy so-and-so’s dictating football.

Honestly, only football fans could moan about more televised games featuring the cream of world football.

And, yes, if you haven’t guessed already, I didn’t score many runs in the first cricket game of the season.