James Corden strongly condemned the Super League proposals on The Late Late Show last night.
The former Gavin and Stacey star – and West Ham fan – spoke passionately during a six-minute speech on the United States talk show which he hosts.
One of the major criticisms of the Super League is that it does not allow for promotion or relegation. That is an approach that’s commonly seen in the US, with Major League Soccer (MLS) utilising a one-division format.
Corden explained the damaging effects of the proposals to his US audience, and gave his strong opinion.
He said: “I’m heartbroken by it, genuinely heartbroken by it.
“I’m heartbroken because the owners of these teams have displayed the worst kind of greed I have ever seen in sport.
“Many football teams in Britain are over 100 years old. They were started by working-class people you know, dock workers, builders, and built by and for the communities that they play in.
“They’re not franchises, but these new billionaire owners over the past 10, 12, 15 years have been buying up all the top teams and slowly but surely they have moved them away from the communities and foundations on which these teams were built.”
“Dreams have been shattered” – Corden
He later added: “It’s hard to express how much communities rely on football, not just financially, which is considerable, but football is a focal point of a town’s hopes and dreams.
“These dreams, they’ve just been shattered. Not just in Britain, all across Europe.
“And the reason these dreams have been shattered and discarded is so that a group of billionaires can buy themselves a bigger boat or a second boat.
“Football is a working-class game where anyone can beat anyone on their day and it’s that that makes it incredible.
“It’s that that’s made it the global force that it is today.”
You can watch the full impassioned speech below. It is most certainly worth a listen:
Featured Image Credit: James Corden / The Late Late Show