By Faisal Al-Nafisi

 What goes through your mind when you hear the word football? I think about unity, hard work and most importantly, that football is for the fans. Football clubs were started by poor working-class people and made for the community around them. Over the past years, billionaire owners decided to get ahold of the big teams in the beautiful game.

They slowly started to move them away from the communities and foundations these teams were built on. They are treating them as businesses and franchises to make huge money. That is certainly not how football teams should be run. Personally, as a football fan, I have always been doubtful of these owners and never believed that they could be true custodians of the future of these clubs.

April 18, 2021 — the thought that niggled in the back of the heads of every football fan became a reality. Twelve of the biggest teams in Europe decided to establish a new midweek ‘Super League’ governed by its founding clubs. So basically what they did is break away from their current leagues and make their own. This means the rich are getting richer without caring about the teams below them, regardless of performances and success.

In their statement when announcing the ESL, they used the pandemic as an excuse to start this league and make more money, when in reality the idea of this league was being worked on for the last couple of years. The only reason the owners of these clubs are doing this is because of greed.

Thankfully, 48 hours later, the ESL was ‘suspended’ because nine out of the 12 teams decided to withdraw from the competition. In my opinion, this is certainly not the end. How can you trust the owners of these massive football clubs when they have attempted to ruin the sport we love?

Now that the ESL is on hold, I think that the next step for fans is to get rid of these greedy owners, who don’t care about anything but their pockets. Protests have been held over the last couple of days, especially in England, to try to persuade the owners to sell. I think this is a step in the right direction, and fans should make their voices heard.

Unfortunately, over the past decade, we have gradually seen fewer and fewer owners listening to what the fans want to happen within their football club. I hope that in the future, fans will have a bigger say on what goes around in football, because after all, football is for the fans.