During the international break a mini-spat over the England players’ pride, or lack of, provided a helpful starting point towards the remaking of football as a social movement. 

Explaining England’s inability to go 1-0 up against Malta until well into the second half has a lot less to do with the lack of emotional commitment of Harry Kane et al than their inability to play. 

“Pride” is the easy cop-out, but how many of England’s starting 11 would Paris Saint Germain be chasing after with their chequebooks, or Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund be in the market for after their most-talented players have been sold off ? 

Of course the best 11 England can put on a pitch isn’t all bad but mostly their talent is boosted at club level by playing alongside foreign, more technically gifted and able players. 

And for the players who turn out for Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, a World Cup qualifier and, short of reaching the long-forgotten semi-final stage, the tournament itself, doesn’t come close to being the biggest match of their careers compared to the more realistic chance, until recently at any rate, of Champions League glory.

And given the enormous wealth the Premier League provides to their clubs even for those players far away from making it into the Champions League, the season-long battle to maintain that status pushes England games pretty far down their, and their coaches’, list of priorities.

Thus at the core of the sickness of what football has become is the hopeless confusion of mistaking the richest league in the world with being the best. 

For a period those disillusioned with the Premier League and all that adopted the mantra “Against Mod£rn Football.” We first turned this into a T-shirt having spotted a banner held by Croatian fans at Euro 2008 reading “Against Mod€rn Football.” But “Against Mod£rn Football” is increasingly problematic in three ways.

First, is the “against” aimed at the growth of women’s football, refugee leagues, a game without borders, the irresistible plurality of where fans come from — race, sex, sexuality and national divisions broken down?

Second, the business of football has become so inseparable from multinational corporate power that the macro-politics to reform the game traditionally adopted by Labour means any agency to enforce these policies seems almost impossible to imagine. Somehow I think an incoming Labour government is going to have more immediate issues on its mind than nationalising the Premier League.

Third, therefore, there is a need to reimagine fan culture not as hard-pressed consumers but as a social movement with the capacity itself to make change.

Currently this is very much a minority movement, but all such movements start with big ambitions and modest advances. We can see the beginnings in the rise of anti-racist ultra groups at Clapton, Whitehawk and elsewhere. 

The growth of start-up football clubs, Hackney Wick FC, City of Liverpool FC and the women’s football club AFC Unity in Sheffield. 

The spread of community ownership up and down the divisions. The pro-refugees message heard from at least some stands.

At the core of any such movement is sex. On this basis the Equality FC initiative at Lewes FC, where the men’s and women’s playing budgets are the same, is a model for all clubs to aspire to if the pressure “from below” can be built.

This is about the remaking of the political, the recognition that it is in popular culture more than any other space that ideas are formed, the limitations on what is possible challenged and transformations take shape. 

Brighton, now a Premier League club, playing in their own city, an ambition only made possible because of a 15-year campaign by their own fans illustrates this. A club culture absolutely framed by that experience.

And it is fitting therefore that it is in Brighton at The World Transformed Festival alongside Labour Party Conference that many of those involved in these practical initiatives will be gathered together by Philosophy Football to launch a discussion on what a football from below might look like.

Any such discussion, if it is to have a meaningful purpose, demands allies. Labour and the trade unions via such a dialogue will be forced to address the narrowness of their own agendas and the scarcity of their own alliances. 

New Labour adopted football in the same way it adopted Britpop as a cultural accessory, providing photo opportunities and celebrity endorsements.

A flimsy appropriation out of a flimsy politics. Corbynism promises something different; the framing of a popular, cultural politics will be vital to any fulfilment of that proud boast. 

Football is just one of what should become countless journeys of putting the ideas of Corbynism into practical extraparliamentary achievement.

Football from Below wears the colours of FC St Pauli as our inspiration. From the bottom-up, not in opposition to those who choose to follow the Premier League money-bagged bandwagon — that would be not only futile but also self-destructive. 

Instead as a minority we will be pioneering the practical possibility of building a game that doesn’t have to be run in the way it is. Idealistic? Guilty as charged.

• Philosophy Football’s Football from Below T-shirt is available from www.philosophyfootball.com or call (01255) 552-412 to order.