If I had £10.2m to part with, then you can be sure I would not be spending it on West Brom versus Stoke City.

That’s how much that particular game would be worth following the grotesque Premier League TV rights deal that was concluded last week. All £5.136bn of it.

While the grassroots game in the UK was resigned to another nail being firmly hammered into its coffin, the pundits and presenters at Sky Sports and BT Sport were rubbing their hands with glee.

Football in this country is terminally ill. There is no cure for the excessive greed and devil-may-care attitude to spending money on a league which is no longer the greatest on earth and hasn’t been for quite some time.

Just the tiniest of fractions of that money could sort out the myriad of problems that exist in lower league football and the grassroots game. But, aside from the odd insincere gesture from the powers that be at the Premier League, this is the deal they wanted. The big bucks. Death to football as we know it.

Such is the squeeze on lower league football clubs nowadays that dads and lads are close to being priced out of a midweek clash between Tranmere Rovers and Hartlepool United. The costs in the game are rising and the only way clubs can manage to survive is to pass on that cost to fans. But we have already reached breaking point. We are past the point of no return.

The Premier League TV deal is abhorrent for so many reasons. What was a gap between the top flight and the Championship is now an almighty chasm, never to be crossed. And what about the fans? The true cost of football in today’s market is simply too much for many.

When the £500,000-per-week footballer comes English football’s top flight - and it will - the hopes and dreams of millions of kids who dream of emulating their heroes have just evaporated into thin air.

Anyone who thinks that this deal will benefit anyone but Premier League sides is dreaming. The academies of clubs in the top flight are already awash with 14, 15, and 16-year-olds from around the globe. See, only the best will do. There will be no more local heroes, no more hometown kid done good. Just a soulless league which has sold out.

The stark reality is that the emerging markets are now more important than we are.

The lights are almost out for the grassroots game. But Burnley and Aston Villa is now on Sky Sports 1.