The Game's Up

Karl Heinz Rummenigge (left), former German international, is head of the little known European Club Association (ECA). Few would realise he wields comparable power in football as his old rival Michel Platini as head of UEFA.

But Karl's emerging plan will revolutionise the club game and wrest control from the moribund UEFA and the basket case that is FIFA.

The most wealthy clubs in Europe are bound by UEFA/FIFA until 2014 when there will almost certainly be calls for a breakaway European League. "After this, we are not bound by FIFA refgulations, "said Rummenigge with suitable teutonic brevity.

I was going to describe FIFA boss Sepp Blatter as the footballing equivalent of Ceaucesu, oblivious to his power draining away until Karl Heinz himself deemed Sepp as "Mubarak".

The clubs have grown too tired of FIFA expecting players to be released for pointless international friendlies for which they gain no income and take all the risk.

Many of the new billionaire owners in the Premiership are from the US and they simply cannot fathom why their clubs (franchises surely?) are playing Norwich and Swansea every week and not Madrid and Inter. Neither are they sympathetic to the dwindling number of traditions of the game.

The new league will dispense with relegation, Saturday afternoon kick-offs and nearly all away fans. To be a hugely successful enterprise they will probably need viewers with any TV package to be able to purchase any game for £10 so swelling the clubs' massive incomes even further.

It will be a vast cartel with many players earning well in excess of £10m a year. No modest club will be able to come from obscurity and win a trophy any more.

Some old romantics may regret the passing of the people's game but in reality it was taken from them years ago.