The clamour for the clubs who rushed into the hare-brained European Super League scheme to be punished is understandable.
And there should, indeed, be some kind of repercussion, in terms of weakening the power of the guilty executives and strengthening the voice of the supporters, manager and players, who have all emerged from this sorry episode with great credit.
But the talk of vengeful punishment, in the form of points deductions, titles being stripped, and Champions League bans, would be the most monumentally stupid error that the rest of football could make.
For a start, points deductions would devalue the Premier League and make next season - or whenever the sanction was imposed - meaningless from the start.
And while it might mean a Leicester or a West Ham could actually end up winning the thing, for a nice change, it would be ultimately meaningless. The triumph would be nothing like Leicester’s amazing 2016 triumph, done through their own guts, sweat and brilliance.
It would be a victory by default. And the temptation to see who WOULD have won the title had Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and the rest not begun the campaign with a 30- or 40-point handicap would be irresistible.
There would effectively be two title races going on, side by side, and for whichever club lifted the trophy at the end of the season, any joy they felt would have a hollow, fake feel to it. Everyone, even them, would know which team was actually the best in the league.
But that is not the main reason for resisting the dire temptation to give the so-called Big Six a slap from which they will be reeling for years to come.
The guilty parties in all this are clear to see, in varying degrees.
Those who led the way - which seems to be the owners and executives of Real Madrid and Barcelona, in an unholy alliance with those of United and Liverpool.
That does not exempt City, Chelsea and the rest from taking a share of the blame, even if those two English clubs showed plenty of reluctance to join Florentino Perez’s beanfeast, and were rushed into a bad decision at short notice when presented with a fait accompli.
After all, Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain both baulked at the idea and refused to entertain it - City and Chelsea could have similarly taken a principled stand.
But the people who made the decision, and those who informed it, at all clubs boils down to a very small number.
The very fact that Pep Guardiola, so central to everything that City do, only discovered the Blues had signed up to it hours before it was announced, tells you that the blame is confined to very few. It is the same at United, where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was oblivious.
Right now, football is in a good moment. The reaction to the European Super League was a tsunami of indignation that a few greedsters were willing to sacrifice one of football’s most cherished principles just so they could make even more money, and grab even more power.
It was not just people outside the Dirty Dozen who fought the notion. Crucially, the abomination was destroyed from within.
City and United fans, and the supporters of the rest of the Big Six - or at last those with their hearts and minds in the right place - were horrified by the concept of being handed something without having to even play for it.
In fact, they were MORE horrified than anyone, because this was THEIR clubs that were trying to sell the sport down the river.
And once it became plain that Pep Guardiola, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jurgen Klopp, and the players of the respective clubs all felt the same way as the fans, and were bridling at the notion of games without jeopardy, the idea was dead.
Already, we have seen players, officials and other “stakeholders in the game” - much as that phrase is rightly loathed - trying to build on this unity, a powerful front against the money men who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Ilkay Gundogan politely suggested that the revolt should not stop at killing the ESL monster, it should move on to tackling the more insidious Champions League changes which are clearly aimed at protecting the elite who have suddenly found that the pandemic’s financial impact and the emergence of new powers like City and Chelsea, is severely wobbling their place at the pinnacle of the pyramid.
Gundogan is right.
Even more importantly, black players have every right to wonder when the massive indignation of everyone who loves the game - fans, players, managers, broadcasters - will be visited upon the racism that still stains the game, with social media giants who profit greatly from the game, standing idly by.
Football fans have found their voice in a good cause, the tribalism forgotten, or at least put into its correct context.
To start talking of points deductions and other footballing punishments would bring that unity crashing down.
Those supporters of the guilty clubs whose opposition was so crucial to ending the ESL, would be punished.
The players and managers who - remember - spoke out against their own employers, would be punished.
The Super League is dead, but Perez and his ilk are already plotting their next move. No one will be at all surprised when the hydra sprouts another head in two or three years time, with a different concept, and different branding, but the same ultimate goal of a money and power grab.
And when that happens, and the rest of football looks to Guardiola, Klopp, Solskjaer, Gundogan, Bruno Fernandes and Jordan Henderson to stand up and be counted again, and wants the fans of those clubs to do the same, they may get a different response.
Punishing the very people who put a stop to the Super League would be enormously counter-productive, especially as the concept was strangled at birth, and caused no actual damage to the game due to the principled stand of good people at those clubs.
