The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The first rule of the European Super League is you do not talk about the European Super League (ESL). At least not in public. You just mention it, sotto voce, to Fifa, to Uefa, to the domestic leagues and, yes, to the smaller clubs any time that they try to stand in your way.

That, of course, is the big takeaway from the latest leaks published in Der Spiegel. The point is not that an ESL is imminent. It is not that clubs are making the final legal checks for a realignment of world football. No, the chastening takeaway is that most of the big changes have already happened.

Philipp Lahm, centre, lifts the Champions League in 2013 for Bayern, who are one of the clubs interested in forming a Super League ALEX GRIMM/GETTY IMAGES

That