School leagues are collapsing, semi-professional teams are going bust. The premiership has picked up the ball and walked off the pitch. While the fans remain loyal to the corporations which have usurped their clubs, the new owners appear to believe that they have no obligation to reciprocate. Two hundred years ago, anyone could play football. Twenty years ago anyone could turn up and cheer.
Today even watching their team on television is beyond the means of some fans.
And the strips are, of course, little more than mobile hoardings. Anyone can see that Michael Owen represents Carlsberg and Reebok. But you'd need binoculars to notice that he also plays for Liverpool. If the Wembley stadium is to become just another corporate acquisition from which all but corporate VIPs are excluded, then it makes no difference to most of us whether it is rebuilt or not. Indeed, a new national stadium in London would merely consolidate the enclosure of the game, sustaining the capital's cultural and economic sovereignty.