In 1990, in my capacity as marketing consultant to a professional London football club, I attended a meeting of FLESA (Football League Executive Staff Association) at Bournemouth FC’s ground. My then wife, Anne, came with me incognito as my personal assistant.

The great and the good behind the scenes of the nation’s football clubs attended these monthly meetings with the objective of discussing the major commercial issues facing their clubs (this was before the cash cow of the Premier League).

The meeting was dominated by two subjects. The first was whether the price of programmes should go up and by how much. The second was that Panini had been in touch and wanted to know when the club secretaries would be sending the new season squad photographs and player details, so that they could produce their soccer albums to sell before the season started.

I casually asked how much Pannini were paying for the supply of the photographs and player details. I was given an odd look by the members, and the chairman replied that they received great publicity from Paninni albums and therefore did not request any payments.

I also asked if clubs copyrighted their club logos. Again, the answer from the chairman was no.

Looking back it seems amazing that just a couple of years before the premiership, football clubs did not realise the commercial value of their name and logo. Of course, it is totally different now with the game awash with money and clubs having their own TV stations and control of their image rights.

If you think the money in the game is obscene, just wait until a world league is created. Driven by the money and the marketing men, the league will probably consist of teams from Europe and South America. The top players in this league will be earning up to £200M a year in wages alone, as worldwide TV money floods in.

The national game will diminish even more as the world league will demand that their players only play in the league and not for their country. The season will be much shorter and mirror the NFL, playing from September to the end of January.

Inclusion into the world league will be decided by the ‘big four’ within each league in Europe and South America. The rest will just get on with a watered down league. Perhaps they will come up with new and innovative ways to attract new supporters?

I believe there will always be a market for leagues that do not include the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. But the clubs left must market themselves with vigour and give the supporters a time to remember every match day.

ENDS