The problem for Gates is, he has a battle on his hands. The rights, which come up for sale in 2001, are currently held by BSkyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch, a man not normally known for his willingness to give in. Gates is offering œ1 billion; that, says English FA official Phil Carling, may not be enough, a better figure would be œ1.4 billion.

All this is a long way from 1992, when Murdoch first bought the rights for œ380 million. Six years later, when the contract was renewed, BSkyB forked out œ670 million. That's small change compared to the latest figures (then again the latest figures are small change for Gates).

What makes the Premiership so attractive? Well, for one,the recognition that England is the spiritual, if not physical, home of the game; an extension, if you please, of the Lords-Wimbledon syndrome. It's why top footballers want to play in the Premiership, why Bergkamp, Stam and the Chelsea crowd are where they are.

In fact, there's a cycle involved here; young people from Belo Horizonte to Bratislava and Brisbane grow up watching English football. Most, like you and I, have their favourite clubs and dream of playing for them. Then they get a shot at that dream. End of story.

There's also something about the style of English football, especially the way it's played today. Forget the traditional long-ball game (high balls from defence to attack, huge hulking strikers waiting to head them past the keeper). The Premiership now has some of the world's most creative playmakers -- Beckham, Keane, Viera, Deschamps -- making positive football the norm rather than the exception. The Italian sides, for all the talent they flaunt, work to a largely defensive plan; theGermans prefer professionalism to pyrotechnics. And as for the Brazilian league, does anyone take it very seriously?

The sad part is, all the riches land up in just a few pockets. Manchester United may be the world's richest club but to Wimbledon and Derby it could almost be another planet, so great the gulf. It's another cycle, this time a more vicious, if equally simple, one; the top five or six clubs get the TV exposure, they get the money, they buy the players, they win the matches. So the rich get richer...

And that's why the Premiership is in danger of imploding, or at least breaking up in two. There's no fun if the same teams keep winning over and over again. The USP of English football, when compared with other leagues, used to be its innate democracy, of smaller clubs springing the odd surprise. Since its inception in 1993, though, the Premiership has been won by three clubs; in the past 15 years, only six clubs have been champions.

The FA Cup used to be different, but Man United have won itthree times in six years; the other three teams were Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton, not exactly minnows.

The gulf, it seems, is too wide to be bridged. That, however, is the challenge facing England's football administrators if they want to avoid the Premiership resembling the Dutch (or, horror of horrors, Scottish) league. Or the most depressing scenario: The top clubs simply breaking away and forming a European Super League. The writing is on the wall.

JAYADITYA GUPTA can be reached at joygupta@express2.indexp.co.in