On 18 April 2021, 12 European football clubs collectively issued a letter of
intent to form a new European Super League. This attempted coup was
strongly opposed across English football. Afterwards, the responsible
owner-oligarchs were singled out for special criticism from pundits and
supporter organizations alike. What emerged was a focus upon the personal
greed and social indifference of those individuals, but what was less
forthcoming in the days following was an analysis capable of putting the
‘greed thesis’ into a more effective social, economic, and even historical
context. This article strives for a more sociological understanding of the
April 18th coup, to understand better the broader social developments in
the political economy of English football from which the coup has come
into being. This article calls for regulatory reform of professional football
in England, to show why such reform is not merely more plausible now
but more necessary