But where has all this money gone? It hasn’t gone to the fans: they are facing increased ticket prices every year. It hasn’t gone to those playing a game on the village playing field on a Sunday morning. All of the billions of pounds that have been spent in the Premier League, where transfer prices and wages have escalated since its inception 15 years ago.

Over the past few years we have seen complaints made by many a football pundit on the state of the grassroots game, not least in the inability of English clubs to churn out promising young players. Premier League clubs have sought to import from abroad, to the detriment of the English game. With the money going to the top on transfers and players’ wages, there has been a lack of redistribution to the game at grassroots level. This has alienated many that work in football in the lower leagues and beyond, and the current economic difficulty has exacerbated this.

We need to renew the call for a windfall tax on Premier League clubs at a time when we are facing rising unemployment and rising prices.

The finances are not available to invest in football at the grassroots level, and communities are being forced to cut their programmes. If we were to place a 5% tax on transfers and sponsorship deals we would be able to redistribute money to where football is most appreciated, support anti-racisim initiatives like ‘Hope not Hate’ and ‘Kick it Out’; and create better facilities and coaching for young players to the benefit of future national teams in the UK.

Fairness in the recession doesn’t just mean fighting the economic crisis on a national level - it means making people’s lives easier. A windfall tax on the top clubs could help community football projects survive at a time when money is tight elsewhere. It is not only in the long term interest of football to act now, but will show that no one – not even the Premier League - is exempt from contributing to making society fairer.