In defence of the Premier League – and the new Man Utd stadium

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Premier League football clubs fleece their paying customers.

We, the fans, are prisoners of the rapacious owners who have the laws of supply and demand horribly skewed in their favour.

Our only countervailing, and somewhat feeble, power is to envelop them with suspicion and rudeness.

Instead of grinching and whinging about our teams and the Premier League , we should celebrate them as a sporting joy.

The standard of play is often breath-taking and the games are competitive.

The influx of foreign players and managers has elevated the spectacle.

The TV rights provide a great deal of the money that generates the quality worth about 3 billion a year.

A lot of that goes to the players, now hugely rich compared to the era of Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore .

But a lot of it has gone to build stadiums that are safer, larger and infinitely better.