The proposal to create a super league of European football teams has been decisively rejected. The existing, rather ramshackle governing bodies, players past and present, bandwagon politicians, but most of all “legacy fans” have demonstrated that not everything is up for sale.

Their opposition to the move struck a much deeper chord than just within the football community. It revealed in sharp focus a view of the world which says that value, and more specifically exchange value is the measure of all things. The fans begged to differ and they were supported, I suspect, by the vast majority of the country who are sick of having the value of everything reduced to its exchange value.

The essence of sport is competition and fair competition means you cannot know what the outcome will be. It means you might win but also that you might lose. It is a gamble. The billionaires who have pumped up the amount of money in the sport to excessive levels are now wanting to take away this essential risk. They want to turn the investment in equity with risk, the value of which depends on the performance of their club/business, into a bond with a guaranteed return. However, they want to have their cake and eat it by securing the level of return appropriate to equity.

Their attempt to assert the rule of exchange value has been overwhelmed by the assertion of moral, ethical, social and community values. Values, concerned with fairness, responsibility, dignity, reason and passion. It is the clash of two very distinct cultures. One which had been in the ascendency for many decades and results in the value free zone of financial capital trying to impose its debit and credit culture on all. The other, that for whom the worth of the beautiful game is intrinsic and a part of their culture and life.

Let us hope that this is a sign of a wider changing cultural landscape. A signal that exchange value and commercial efficiency are not the final measure of all things.