Won’t someone in football think seriously about fans – just for once?

The European Super League appears to mark a point of no return for the world’s favourite sport, writes Ben Burrows

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez will head up the new league (Getty Images)

A moment that has long been coming that sparked a new dawn for the game.

But enough about Jose Mourinho getting the sack at Tottenham, there's a European Super League on the horizon.

It is not too often that the eyes of the news world revolve around sport. Sure, during a World Cup or an Olympic Games casual viewers become avid fans for a few weeks every few years, but you don't expect the news cycle to be dictated entirely by football too regularly.

But that's where we currently are with the confirmation of what has long been in the works – a breakaway competition involving 12 of the richest and most powerful clubs in the world – dominating headlines at the front and back of newspapers all over.

Rich and powerful are the words too, with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus flexing their collective muscle to bring about a tournament where they make the rules.

On the face of it the originally named Super League will replace the Champions League as a midweek European tournament running from August to May.

However, what it becomes in reality is a closed-shop competition that only the very biggest clubs can enter. Domestic leagues can't be seen to cave to such behaviour from a select few and are under serious pressure to ban those threatening to leave.

It is no exaggeration to say that that would result in the biggest shift the game has seen in its 140 years. Football has prided itself on its unity throughout its long and storied history. That unity was shattered by the coordinated announcement of those 12 clubs on Sunday evening.

The reasons are clear. JP Morgan have pledged to pump in £4.3bn to get the venture up and running with each of what is expected to be 15 founder members getting their share. That money would, in the words of Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez, then go into "responding to the desires" of more than 4 billion fans globally.

Except this isn't what fans want at all. Sunday's announcement has been met with almost universal condemnation, with supporter groups, politicians and leading football figures queuing up to criticise the proposal.

There remains a long way to go, of course. Those close to negotiations believe it could well fall at the first of what will undoubtedly be many legal challenges, with how it is broadcast and by whom representing significant hurdles to overcome.

What is clear, though, is this appears to be a point of no return for the world's favourite sport. The mask has slipped. The end of football as we once knew it is here.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports editor