Ask any fan who their main rivals are or which match they care most about and the answer is local. The structure of our club football, including FA and League cups and right down through the Football League and into the Conference, is the envy of European football and no other country gets close to replicating it in terms of strength and depth or passion and participation.

It is domestic club football that is the driving force behind European competition and not the other way round. When it comes to how the game should govern itself we don’t need special treatment.

We have created the best domestic league in the world both on and off the pitch; managing to be inclusive, transparent and accountable through good governance and engaging on a range of community, education and social inclusion programmes. We have just negotiated with Richard Caborn an increase in the amount, both as a percentage and in real terms, to be spent on these initiatives, taking our annual spend to about £35 million — not to mention the £500 million-plus the Treasury receives in tax from the Premier League, its clubs and the players.

Uefa is not and should not be the governing body of European football — they have their own competitions to run and should be free to do so as they see fit, just as we have ours. The idea that the rest of European football can decide what is best for the English game is a nonsense; just as it should be down to the Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, Dutch etc as to how they run their leagues. The introduction of the proposed reforms would put all this success at risk.

Another example is the talk of cost controls — this means a salary cap — which on first examination seems a reasonable idea, until you realise that limiting clubs to a percentage of turnover, say 65 per cent, actually locks in an advantage to the big clubs as they have the highest turnover. It would also mean that the likes of Wigan, Fulham and Middlesbrough would probably not be in the Premier League. Is this what we really want?

The Premier League has huge respect for Richard Caborn and the job he does but there is no need for a pseudo-European Sports Minister pushing an agenda that runs counter to continued success for the Premier League.

When it comes to the Beautiful Game, the only thing that should be kicked round Europe is a ball.