Watch ‘heartbroken’ James Corden’s passionate speech about European Super League on Late Late Show in full

“The truth is that this whole thing, making this move, these teams, these owners are killing.

“They will kill hundreds of other football teams that compete with them and have competed with them over the years, disregarding the fanbases of those teams and of their own teams who are also devastated.

“Because these aren’t small teams. You will have heard of AC Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona… These are the biggest teams in the world and this decision is monumental.

“And I’m heartbroken by it. Genuinely heartbroken. Because the owners of these teams have displayed the worst kind of greed I’ve ever seen in sport.

“Many football teams in Britain are over 100 years old and they were started by working-class people; dock workers, builders… built by and for the communities that they play in. They are not franchises.

“These new billionaire owners in the past 10-15 years have been buying up all the top teams and slowly but surely moved them away from the communities and foundations on which these teams were built.

“It’s always niggled at the back of fans’ minds whether these owners truly understood what it meant to be part of their club, to be part of its history and if they could be true and honourable custodians of their futures.

“Yesterday the realisation hit every football fan hard. It’s not just that they don’t understand football or what it means to be a fan but it’s simply the realisation that they don’t care.

“If anything they look at the historical fanbases with disdain. They want a closed shop where the rich get richer, they don’t care if the teams that are below them struggle.

“They’ll take that money regardless of performances and regardless of success on the pitch. It’s disgraceful.”

“I’m trying to think of how to describe this. It’s like Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Saoirse Ronan and Viola Davis go, ‘Well we’ll always be nominated but there’s one place for someone else regardless of what films we’re in’.”

“The statement from the 12 owners and why they’ve announced such a jaw-dropping plan, during the season where there’s still seven games to go, is disgusting.

“Three times they mention the pandemic as a reason to do this. A pandemic that has been catastrophic for clubs and communities across Britain.

“It’s hard to express how much these communities rely on football, not just financially which is considerable but also as a focal point of a town’s hopes and dreams. That’s what it is.

“And these dreams have just been shattered, not just in Britain but all across Europe.

“And the reason these dreams have been shattered and discarded is so that a group of billionaires can buy themselves a bigger boat. Or a second boat.

“Football is a working class game where anyone can beat anyone on their day and it’s that that makes it incredible, that’s made it the global force that it is today.

“A few years ago Leicester City, many of you would never have heard of Leicester City, won the Premier League. It was the most incredible thing to witness.

“It gave every fan hope. They have as many Premier League titles as Liverpool, they have one more than Tottenham and they’re not invited into this rich boys’ clique because the wealthy teams got together to try to stop that achievement ever happening again. And that isn’t sport.

“And if this happens, and unfortunately I really do think it will, I don’t want to be overdramatic but I do think it’s the end of the sport that we love. It truly is.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it, but what we can do and I hope as fans that we will remember the names of these owners. How they hid behind a devastating pandemic as a reason to announce this while a season is being played.

“They didn’t consult a single player, a single manager, they certainly did not consult the fans of their teams.

“They bought into a sport that so many of us live for at 3pm on a Saturday. They took it and they are going to crush it without ever thinking of the damage that’s being done.

“Don’t forget the people that did this, it’s those owners in a decade’s time when the Super League’s thriving and I’m sure it’s got great goals and all those things, and these owners will think that it’s all water under the bridge.

“Don’t ever forget that it was those owners, they took something so pure and so beautiful and they beat the love and the joy out of it. And they did it for money. They just did it for money and it’s disgusting.”