Ok, that’s the European Super League done with then. Let’s get back to work. But, like WTF? I was just getting exited about going to Barcelona and Madrid every other week for 6 months (I have sooooo many air miles) and now NOTHING!!! The Spaniards would probably field 3rd teams in what would quickly become meaningless, exhibition matches anyway, so why risk the big guys?. How could they lift me up so high and then… and then… nothing. Zip. De nada. I’m devastated. What will I do with my “ESL Frever!!!”, and “BIG SIX TEAM SO FUCK YOU!!!”, t-shirts? Will I get a refund?

Also, if I’m being totally honest, although the ‘Y-word’ associated with my beloved team causes me no offence whatsoever, as I understand its full meaning and origins, I do not feel completely comfortable with the ‘Big 6’ thing at all. Spurs are a ‘big club’. No doubt. Financially we’re massive: fan-base spectacular, stadium (until someone else builds one) the best in the world. But when they listed the ESL teams the other day along with ‘last league title won’, that was a column too far. 1961. Half of the grandparents of current fans weren’t alive then. (I’m alive at the moment of writing this and include Lila and Joey as ‘fans’). And although cups and trophies are not my motivation for anything (otherwise there’d be no Spurs fans) it does kind of set us aside a little.

Anyway; its over. Like Brexit again, but quicker. This time the vote went 62,453,079 vs 6.

Over in America (where this trouble began, if you think about it) they just finished the trial of Derek Chauvin, the policeman who murdered (yes, we can say that now) George Floyd in Minnesota. And it is safe to say that there has never been a more unfair trial in the entire history of unfair trials. Lynch mobs were fairer than this. Charles Bronson in Death Wish was fairer than this.

And I’m not saying he didn’t do it (doh: the film footage is simply horrendous) nor that he doesn’t deserve to be punished. It’s just the trial. Because upon his guilty shoulders sat the immediate future of civil uprising in America. Politically he simply had to be found guilty, regardless of any evidence or videos. As a ‘line drawn in the sand’ by the American police, he needed to be guilty. Basically, he was guilty or there’s war. Even the president yesterday, before the jury went out, went on tv to say how he hoped Del-boy was found guilty. Fucking right he hoped that, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough soldiers in all 50 states to stem what would have ensued.

The guilty verdict is not ‘the end’ of institutional racism in America. It is barely a start to look properly at a massive problem. Chauvin will go to prison, deservedly, where he’ll be the most popular man in the place. But everyone has the right to a fair trial. And that wasn’t anything like one and he didn’t get one. Just sayin’…

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx