James Shield's Sheffield United Column: A new footballing relationship must emerge from the coronavirus crisis

Over the next few weeks, or possibly even months depending on how the coronavirus unfolds, we’re about to discover just how friendly that family is. Ready to stand together in a time of crisis and help every member out? Or simply descend into a squabble fuelled by greed and self-interest? If history is anything to go by, one suspects it will be the latter.

The frontline in the battle between the warring factions won’t be the dividing line between the Premier League and the English Football League, who on Wednesday evening launched a £50m rescue package for members suffering extreme financial hardship because of fixture postponements. You might even find, when it ensures its own immediate funding streams are in place and working order, that the PL chips in with a donation of its own. (Image consultants hired by officials at its Brunel Building HQ, will, I’d happily wager a year’s worth of solidarity payments, will already have prepared a briefing on the PR benefits).

No, the theatre of operations is likely to centre around those areas where the game and its paymasters meet. The contracts clubs have agreed with television channels, radio stations and other assorted parties. Deals which are not conducive to a relationship of equals.

When the PL was first established, with Sheffield United among its founder members, the FA effectively ceded its control of our national sport to the flash entrepreneurs, whose world view had mostly been shaped by Thatcher, with an eye for making a fast buck. Then, as the whole thing morphed into a commercial monster and folk decided it was suddenly fashionable again, they in turn sold the keys to their houses to media giants and conglomerates.

Owners, players and agents grew fat on the profits, chucking those who knew what it was like to stand on a crumbling windswept terrace the odd little scrap to keep them compliant. But the idea they were still the guv’nors, and in some cases the guv’noresses, was nothing more than a facade. British Satellite Broadcasting had its hands on the money tap. And, like its successors SKY, BT and others including Bein Sports, it could quickly turn it off if it didn’t get what it wanted.

This has led to a situation where matches are routinely staged at times which suit the game’s paymasters but not players, coaches and fans. Top-flight clubs pretend to be on the side of the people whenever they are inconvenienced. But it’s a pretence because, if they really were that bothered about those who filed through the turnstiles, they would sacrifice some of the millions they receive from these giant media conglomerates and negotiate, in terms of power, more equitable deals. Instead, they have decided, on behalf of the rest of us, that not being able to plan your own training or travel programmes, losing fortunes in wasted train tickets and, when it comes to players and managers, being forced to jump through hoops if a rights holder wants something - no matter how ridiculous or inconvenient - is a sacrifice worth making so they can get fatter financially. Trust me, I’ve seen it across the entire country, how petrified - absolutely petrified - club officials are of doing something to upset them.

The only trouble is, with fixtures being postponed for the foreseeable as the world battles Covid-19, there aren’t any taking place. Which means those who have got English football by the short and curlies are getting nothing in return for the billions they’ve stumped-up. And if their profits, which they surely will, start getting hit, the chances are they’ll take steps to claw some of those back. When, of course, they calculate it doesn’t offend the public’s sensibilities too much in the present climate. And whilst pumping out advertising campaigns designed to make us believe they didn’t snatch the keys to the footballing juggernaut to make a few quid. No, they did it because they truly love the sport.

Football, like the rest of society, will have to suffer a lot of pain during a health crisis which threatens to wreck entire economies. If something good is to come out of this whole sorry and often tragic mess, from a purely footballing perspective, it is a more friendly, caring and equitable football family. One which looks after all its members and isn’t entirely dependent on those with the biggest purses and wallets.