AN overwhelming majority of readers do not want the controversial new European Super League to go-ahead, according to our online poll.

English football’s supposed ‘big six’ - Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur - have agreed to join the new breakaway league called the European Super League (ESL), along with six other clubs from Spain and Italy.

It is a move which could have huge ramifications for the sport all over Europe, from elite competition to grassroots football.

The ESL, which is a midweek competition, has attracted widespread condemnation, including from football’s governing bodies, fans’ trusts, former players and Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

A total of 98 per cent of readers who took part in the poll on the Gazette’s website voted against the super league plans.

Colchester United Supporters Association chairman Jon Burns fears the team’s exploits against the top football clubs in the country could become a thing of the past if the new league is created.

Mr Burns said he feels the new competition between Europe’s big hitters is bad for the game - and supporters.

League Two side Colchester enjoyed a superb run to the League Cup quarter-finals in the 2019-20 season which saw them famously beat Spurs and take on Manchester United, at Old Trafford.

Mr Burns feels such big cup occasions could become a rarity in the future for clubs like the U’s, if the new ESL goes ahead.

He said: “As a football fan, I think football is becoming more and more a money-orientated business.

“It’s all about how much money people can make out of it, how much players can earn, how much owners can earn, how much you can sell TV rights for.”

“If you look at the game on the pitch, yes they’ve got the best players and it’s almost perfect football - it’s risk-free football and that feels strange, to me.

“The product they want to serve with the very best players in the world with these teams playing each other each week playing that sort of football, if that’s what floats the boat with the TV companies to get the money in it’s shocking.

“But the damage if this goes ahead - and if the threatened action by UEFA and the Football Association comes to fruition - could mean that we could potentially never see those clubs spoken of in competitions such as the FA Cup and League Cup with Colchester ever again.

“We may never get to Old Trafford ever again, like we did 18 months or so ago.

“I’m a little bit anti the Premier League and how money has corrupted it.

“It’s risen since lockdown and all of the fun and games happening with who was going to help the lower league clubs and the Premier League weren’t going to open their purse without concessions coming back the other way shows the contempt that some clubs at the higher end of the pyramid have for football.

He added: “Perhaps Manchester United don’t want Colchester United or any other going to Old Trafford in the FA Cup again?

“Perhaps it’s not what floats their boat anymore.”

Fan groups connected to the six English clubs involved have voiced strong opposition too.

Burns feels supporters of many Premier League sides are becoming increasingly alienated from their clubs, with money the prime cause.

Colchester’s MP Will Quince said the Government is triggering the launch of a fan-led football review.

Mr Quince said: “The Government has been deeply concerned at the proposals for a new European Football League, which is putting money before fans and will cravenly strip the game of the things that make millions across our country and world love it.”

The review will cover the financial sustainability of the mens’ and womens’ game, governance and regulation, and the merits of an independent regulator.