PM sides with fans in Super League outcry – but will he stay with them? | David Conn

Analysis: Mindful of ‘red wall’ voters, Johnson protested, but the question remains whether he can give the game long-term help

The spectacle of Boris Johnson, acme of an old Etonian rugby man, weighing in on the side of football fans against the breakaway European Super League, is a collision of political and sporting cultures that has been brewing for 30 years.

The abortive participation in the venture of England’s “big six” clubs, all owned by investors from overseas, is the culmination of a financial carve-up that began with English football’s own breakaway, the 1992 formation of the Premier League. The then big First Division clubs were determined not to share the new pay-TV riches with the clubs in the Football League’s other three divisions. As their fortunes subsequently boomed, British owners made multimillions by selling their shares.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2P5yRiH

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