If there was any lingering doubt that money is ruining top level football, events of the last couple of weeks must now have extinguished them.

Liverpool’s trips to the High Court, injunctions from Texas, Wayne Rooney toying with one of the greatest managers of all time and biggest clubs in the world and then news of Portsmouth’s financial woes.  Add in older problems such as Yaya Toure’s £220,000 per week pay packet, plans to send the Premier League abroad for a 39th game every season, billion pound television contracts from Sky, escalating ticket prices and an £80 million plus transfer fee for Cristiano Ronaldo and surely the evidence is slapped in the face of every football fan. The plot has long been lost.

Yet here we are, still believing the grass is green and that the show will continue to go on. All the while Premier League teams play every week, filling the pockets of the players, managers, club directors, agents, league officials and television companies a problem does not exist. Turn a blind eye.

The reality is that unless something is done now to stop this escalation of money, football is going to face ruin. There’s little doubt the country will always have a love for football, but for how much longer will people keep paying big money for it? This week’s spending review will leave people with shallower pockets – so why will they continue to pay for football?

Firstly, let’s look at attendances. West Ham’s Upton Park ground has a capacity of 35,000 yet when champions Chelsea pitched up last month, only 33,000 came to watch. Similarly, Wigan’s DW stadium can hold 25,000 people yet when champions Chelsea arrived in August, only 15,000 paid to watch the game. Or perhaps Blackburn? A stadium with a capacity of 31,000 people, former title winners and a regular Premier League team. A game against Arsenal, one of the most entertaining footballing sides in the world, and 25,000 attend.

Clearly gate receipts aren’t as crucial as they once were and television money provides the back bone of a club’s financial state. Though Sky continues to thrive, it isn’t out of the realms of possibility that they start to lose customers. Pubs – an important revenue stream for the company – are continuing to go out of business as more people stay at home. Rising costs of Sky subscriptions could see people switching off. And a six-year licence fee freeze could see the BBC ponder whether another Premier League highlights contract is worth the extortionate sums of money.

And then the clubs themselves. Talk of Liverpool going into administration, questions over Manchester United’s long-term financial state, the demise of Leeds, the possibility of Portsmouth’s liquidation, the disappearance of Chester City. On the opposite end of the scale, the money being pumped into Manchester City and Chelsea and even Crawley Town allegedly offering Robert Pires a £3,000-a-week contract to play in the Conference.

Football’s gone absolutely balmy. People question the idiocy of  City bankers but don’t bat an eyelid at what’s going on in the nation’s favourite sport. All the while there is somebody willing to buy out a club, the money-fuelled gamble will continue.

Worse still, when the people of this country are asked to tighten their belts football continues to spend. While  490,000 public sector workers look set to lose their jobs, Wayne Rooney pockets a new £190,000/week contract and while football lives in a bubble, the people that pay for it to exist struggle to pay for the bare essentials. Football has been lucky until now, but that financial relationship is going to be under intense strain over the coming years.