Other sports have seen independent competitions formed, such as LIV Golf – which enticed some of the best players on the planet into their ranks with the promise of lucrative contracts and a new format that was intended to capture the imagination of a worldwide audience.
That project is now going through a bankruptcy process, while endeavouring to get new partners and finance on board, and highlights how the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Asked about any similarities between LIV and a European Super League, as leading golfers were allowed to compete in the four majors and Ryder Cup events, Mills said: “How’s that gone? It hasn’t gone brilliantly.
“They found a very short-term workaround that then went ‘pop’. Because it’s not watchable. Sport is all about jeopardy. Sport is all about winning and losing. And people want fair competition.
“That’s why our pyramid is so successful, because you have relegation and promotion. There’s hope, there’s devastation when you get relegated. If it becomes very, very bland and you cannot get relegated, you get to the stage where, halfway through the season, you don’t need to bother anymore.
“How competitive are the games? Is it worth watching? No. This is why the EFL have changed it in the Championship to eight teams in the play-offs. To make it even more competitive.
“Look at teams now, you know seventh, eighth place might get you into Europe. It extends the season. It used to be a case, when you get to March, ‘yeah, we’re alright now, doesn’t really make much difference, we ain’t getting relegated, we ain’t making Europe’. You take your foot off the gas by 10, 15 per cent and some of the games become a bit of a nonsense.
“If you have a Super League, if you’re not in the top four with 10, 15 games to go, you go ‘don’t need to bother now’ and the standard falls. People don’t want to watch it because there’s no jeopardy.
“We all watch sport because of jeopardy, one way or the other. We all love a penalty shootout because, ultimately, we want to see someone miss. Sport is cruel in that way. If you take that away, it becomes unwatchable, in my opinion.”