8 months ago
43 It’s scarcely believable that Donald Trump, the disgraced ex-President of the United States of America, could be influential in terms of the future of European football, but that’s the precise scenario being painted by Premier League co-creator, John Smith.
Were he to be elected again at the expense of Joe Biden, there is a very real possibility that the football landscape as we know it will change significantly.
Donald Trump could influence European football
“There are an interesting group of think tanks being put together to assemble what the game plan will be in world politics should Biden or Trump win the American election,” Smith said for his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
“I was speaking to one of the think tank chairs and the general political feeling was that if Trump gets in, which they think he will, China, the Gulf and India will be his priorities.
“Europe will slip down that priority list and Britain is relatively irrelevant even if we speak the same language.
“The interesting thing for me though, was that they were looking at green energy, AI, and right at the bottom of that list, sporting influence.
“This is where football will actually play a part in what happens next and so I think a lot of people are going to come up with a lot of ideas.”
If we look at the way in which the Saudi Arabians have disrupted the usual order of things, the idea of Trump having a say can’t realistically be dismissed.
Champions League trophyUsing football as a vehicle for political influence makes perfect sense, and whilst that isn’t going to appeal to the traditionalists, the Gen Z supporters probably won’t even understand the difference.
What clubs and leagues, as well as players, will be risking is alienating quite a large portion of their fan bases if they ‘get into bed’ with certain entities.

Nation states owning clubs is the most obvious recent example of how certain scenarios are seeping into the game, and had you told supporters 20 years ago that exactly that would be happening to the beautiful game, the likelihood is you’d have been given short shrift.
Jon Smith has fired a warning shot, so supporters ignore it at their peril.
