The Championship season finishing seems like an age away already for me and I imagine most other Sunderland supporters despite it being just over two weeks since we were crowned Champions at Kenilworth Road. Well I say we were crowned at Kenilworth Road but given the Football League’s inability to give football supporters some credit they decided we couldn’t be crowned champions that day in case the Luton supporters took offence and went on a rampage that could’ve seen vast improvements to the ground and its surrounding areas.
Of course, the season isn’t officially over yet as Derby and West Brom are still waiting to fight out the climax at Wembley in six days time for the right to join Birmingham and ourselves in the Premiership, oops I mean in the Premier League (yes re-branded again), next season. The one thing that can be almost guaranteed about the Play Off Final is that it will be a far more entertaining game than the FA Cup final turned out to be that’s for sure.
Wednesday night is the night when all of Europe finds out just who are the Kings of Europe as either Liverpool or AC Milan will be crowned as the best side in Europe.
Forget the fact that Liverpool have yet to win the PremierLeagueship, or the fact that they have not won the league in 17 years now. Forget the fact that AC Milan did not win Serie A last season, forget the fact that AC Milan were actually punished by the Italian authorities for match fixing in order to assist their entry into the “Champions league” oh and forget the fact that the game is being played in a ground with a capacity of 72,000 but with only 63,000 being allowed to attend as those 9,000 seats need to be put aside to allow more advertising space.
If you do all of the above then you will be able to sit on the edge of your seat waiting to see just who will earn the coveted honour of being Europe’s finest side and it could be our very own English club that is crowned the best which would be a ringing endorsement of this countries football and something which we should all be proud of.
Now let’s get back to the reality of it. Neither of the two sides tomorrow night deserves to be playing for the honour of European Champions, least of all AC Milan in light of their conviction for match fixing, but the game stands as a testament to just what football is now today.
English fans should be wanting to see their countries representatives succeed but the sad truth of the situation is that the presence of three of our clubs in the last four of the Champions League was not an endorsement of how strong our league is, but simply a further sign that there is a widening chasm between the major players in England and the rest who make up the also ran’s.
Liverpool winning the Champions League final tomorrow night is not good for English football and will do nothing to benefit our game so there will not be support from myself that’s for sure.
In fact AC Milan winning on Wednesday night would be a far greater testament to modern day football than anything else. A club who have cheated their way into a tournament for Champions, from a country where the real Champions were relegated because their level of cheating was so significant, to be Crowned as the Champions of Europe would be very fitting indeed.
And they claims cheats never prosper.