BEAR with me while I divulge this breaking news.

Northern football clubs, including those in the Premier League, have decided to go it alone.

The breakaway group, headed by Manchester United and Liverpool, have issues with the way the game is being run and think change is necessary and overdue.

They are going to set up a separate association and amend some of the rules, changing the name of their new sport to footyball'.

One obvious difference with footyball is the use of goal posts similar to those used in rugby.

A goal scored in the net in the usual football' way will be worth four points, while a goal scored rugby' style over the crossbar will be worth one point.

Imagine after a successful few years of footyball in Britain, there will be a demand for the best players in this country to play at international level. But no other country has caught on to footyball, Britain's on its own!

Perhaps a visionary businessman in a soccer stronghold, somewhere like Brazil, may find a way of attracting star names from numerous clubs to assemble a squad that can tour and play matches against Britain's footyball finest.

Okay, okay - I've not gone mad, of course all of the above is codswallop. It's hardly believable and some of the suggestions are not a true comparison of the point I am about to make.

But, just for a minute, can you imagine the consternation and the ramifications for football in this country and possibly the domino effect around the world if such a move was to occur?

Can you imagine the feelings for those Brazilian footyball players held by their clubs, teammates and fans - not to mention the game's chiefs who would not want to lose clubs and star players to a rising rival sport.

The talk would be of traitors, glory hunters, perhaps in some cases money grabbers.

It may get nasty. It could be the cause for World War Three.

Well, the way I see it, some of that imaginary stuff kind of reflects the rugby split in 1895, when the Northern Union (now rugby league) was formed, and the subsequent tour of Australia and Great Britain by the New Zealand All Golds.

Those 29 men from a rugby union background Down Under, assembled and managed by Wellington postal worker Albert Henry Baskerville, put their livelihoods, reputations and honour on the line when they sailed half way round the world in pursuit of a game of rugby league in 1907.

Southern hemisphere rugby union chiefs did all that they could to stop the rising, including banning Baskerville from grounds, but the men showed great courage and determination to set out on their great adventure.

That's how international rugby league began.

And for me, that's what Saturday is all about at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The centenary match is a celebration and a commemoration to honour those bravehearts who provided a platform for the wonderful game we enjoy today.