The English Premier League is heading in a negative direction

Justin Thrift
A Point-Counter Point

The English Premier League is a sporting league like no other on this planet. In recent years, the world’s game (Soccer, as we refer to it here in America) has found no bigger stage at club level competition than England’s Premier League. It boasts a combined club revenue each season of around $1.8 billion, making it the world’s most profitable soccer league and fourth most profitable sporting league in the world behind only the NFL, MLB, and NBA. It enjoys being the world’s most watched sporting league with an estimated 500 millions viewers in around 202 countries world wide, and UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) has ranked the Premier League as the most elite club in all of Europe for the past 5 seasons ahead of Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, and Germany’s Bundesliga.

What this means is that no other league in the world has been able to do a better job of selling the world’s game in recent time. No other league has generated as much interest, fandom, or shear quality that can match the face paced English game. There’s no doubt about it, this league has reached new heights that no other sports league has ever touched; but in the process, has the English Premier League crippled the game of football? I believe it’s heading in a direction that will seriously hurt the English game, and European soccer in general, long-term. The Premier League is perhaps the best prototype of business that modern sports leagues and teams have become, but it’s simultaneously nailing its foot to the ground and deflating one of the world’s most thrilling sports.

Now, before I proceed, it’s important that I make myself understood: there are very few Americans as invested in this league as I am. Born from a family of North Londoners, I will forever bleed the colors of Tottenham Hotspur. My life comes to a halt every four years when England attempts to reach glory at the World Cup, and English football has been just as potent on my sporting radar, if not more, then any other sport throughout my life. This is why it kills me to see the Premier League turning into what it is: an elitist enterprise for the select few. A business dealing of the most gross and imbecile measures. A totalitarian landscape of empires and regimes. Pick one, they all work perfectly.

Football League and the creation of the Premier League

What many American soccer fans don’t know is that the Premier League is rather young. However, football in England isn’t. In 1888 the first English football league was created, simply going by the name “Football League”. This lasted for four seasons, when the relegation/promotion concept was instituted with what became known as “Football League First Division”. This was the first concept of a “premier league”, or a league where the most elite clubs in England feature. As in the current system, the worst three teams in the top division were relegated downwards, as the top three in the Football League would be consequently promoted up to the first division.

In 1992, The English Premier League was formed after top clubs in England decided to split from the Football League in search of a more televised and lucrative league. Hence, the English Premier League was born. The Premier League was founded on the modern philosophy of big business in sports; it was designed to generate huge profits, and through its 17 seasons to date, that is exactly what it has done.

Addressing the issue of the “Big Four”

Today, the Premier League has developed into an unchecked financial goliath and while it’s succeeding in paying the bills for players, coaches and management, it has also succeeded in developing an archetype football club for ruining the sport in Europe. Let’s look at my first example. If you’re an American English-soccer enthusiast today, chances are you pay your allegiance to one of the “big four” teams: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool. And it’s no wonder. These teams command the most wealth of all English teams, and therefore, the most success and television opportunity. There’s no chance for an American kid to fall in love with any other team, they’d have to find them first. And besides, unless you were born in Sunderland, why would you root for a losing team? It’s easier, more convenient, and more popular to follow a team like Manchester United, with their continual ESPN coverage, infinite bank account to ensure they won’t fall out of winning habits, and a steady marketing agreement with the New York Yankees. For an impressionable American kid living more than 3000 miles away from the action, it’s a no-brainer.

All you have to do is consult Forbes 2009 list of the wealthiest football clubs in Europe, and you’ll be simultaneously looking at a list of the most popular clubs in the world:
1. Manchester United (ENG)
2. Real Madrid (SPA)
3. Arsenal (ENG)
4. Bayern Munich (GER)
5. Liverpool (ENG)
6. AC Milan (ITA)
7. Barcelona (SPA)
8. Chelsea (ENG)
(Notice how every “big four” team makes an appearance on the list.)

So, what the Premier League has done is create a stagnant environment within the league where four wealthy and historic clubs vie for the top places year after year with little to no competition except for themselves. In this undisturbed rat trap that occurs at the top of the league table are the four coveted Champions League spots that will, every season, be granted to the “big four”, as they’ve come to be known. Surely, a sick twisted design of monetary muscle if ever there were one, and a depressingly boring scenario for any team left out of the party (all other clubs in England.) If you aren’t lucky enough to be Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool, then your biggest goal is trying to seek entry into the UEFA cup (a collage of the best mediocre teams in Europe) or avoiding the relegation battle that would demote you down from the Premier League. If it sounds like a one sided scenario that repeats the same story every year, that’s because it is. Not convinced? Let’s consider some facts.

Since the Premier Leagues’ birth 17 seasons ago, only 4, out of 43 teams that have appeared in the league, have won the championship: Manchester United (11), Arsenal (3), Chelsea (2), and Blackburn (1). (Blackburn Rovers carried over their potent squad from their days in the Football League First Division and won the third Premier League season, a shocking title that would prove to be their ultimate peak before plummeting.) The Premier League has seen Manchester United win back-to-back championships twice, three championships in a row two times, and 11 championships total out of the League’s 17 year span. The past four seasons have seen the “big four” finish 1-4 in the league table, and no team other than a “big four” team has made a Champions League Final appearance since Aston Villa won the tournament in 1981. The “big four” have consistent winning records against every other team currently in the Premier League. (In addition, many of the league’s most entertaining games come from teams outside the “big four” as the most elite teams usually meet up in stalemate matches that only stress the viewer. One of the greatest games in Premier League history took place several seasons ago between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham in a back and forth game that jostled the fans hearts like a good football game should.)

These facts not only prove the dominance of the “big four”, they reveal a startling trend in the direction of the Premier League: downwards and monotonous. How can any professional sporting league this consistently one-sided be any fun to watch, let alone thrilling or appealing to fans? These four teams have monopolized the power in European football, and have leaked a disturbing trend into the rest of Europe where teams like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and AC Milan are copying the Premier League’s tactic of winning and using complete financial force to buy their way to Championships and protection (refer back to Forbes’ wealthiest clubs list). The modern surge of financial domination has also negatively affected fans in the prices they are expected to pay for tickets. Without charging an arm and a leg for a seat at a game, clubs have no way to replenish the obscene salaries that they now dish out to every one of their players. It’s a sad fact that since the dawn of the Premier League, the average player salary has expanded by many hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than 2 decades.

Crippling the English game

Some people may claim that the recent domination of the Premier League’s “big four” only helps the English game and that a Premier League that consistently tops La Liga and Serie A is a great achievement for England and English football. They say that having teams like Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, and Liverpool puts the English game on the map. While these teams certainly do bring the Premier League worldwide attention, it’s certainly not a result of English talent. How does it showcase the English game when only 10 out of 20 players on Manchester United’s First Team is actually English? Only 5 of 28 players on Chelsea’s current squad can claim English nationality. Perhaps most notable of all is Arsenal, who have a dismal 3 out of 29 First Team players who are actually English. Liverpool has 10 players on their monstrous 42 man First Team squad who are English. That’s, are you ready, 28 English players out of 119 First Team players on all top four teams in the 2008-2009 Premier League season. Wow, great exposure for England, right? It almost seems like the only thing “English” about these teams is where they play. And did I mention that an English coach has never won the Premier League?

All this proves is that this league would not be the powerhouse that it is without foreign talent to bolster its top teams and the overwhelming wealth that is required for dominant teams to bring foreign talent to England. Furthermore, in the process of fishing around the world for top talent, the Premier League along with other top European leagues have promoted a scouting tactic that robs players from leagues in Africa, Asia and the Americas, leaving those leagues in a desolate wasteland of lesser talent.

Solutions to be had: UEFA’s role

The problems that the Premier League is facing spawns from a simple issue: the Premier League is a league that does not adequately supervise its teams. This is a league where teams are able to have as many players as they wish, whenever they want, with as many positions as they desire. Teams are not confined to keep their payroll under a certain amount and may spend as much money as freely and as often as they wish. The management of these Premier League teams can reach for the stars with the minor regulations of a trading deadline and menial foreign player visa requirements. With freedom like this, it’s no wonder that the “big four” are able to sustain championship squads from year to year. It’s also no wonder how poorer teams face an uphill battle they can never win unless a billionaire buys them out; there is no lottery system, no draft, no league bailouts for Premier teams in trouble– your team is completely on their own. Would successful leagues like the NBA or NFL ever function properly under such loose rules? The answer is a definite no. These leagues provide new champions every year and give bad teams a fighting chance. NO league can provide thrilling entertainment in this age of billionaire business tycoons without a policing figure within the league to monitor fair business. To be clear, the problem is not with dynasty teams like Liverpool or Manchester United; dynasty teams are a rich tradition in any league, and a valuable asset to the sport. The problem is the environment in which the Premier League allows these now dynasty teams to operate in. Quite simply, without newly implemented rules and regulations to govern business in the modern European football arena, there will be no end to the streaks of “big four” championships, predictable score lines and league positions, and no end to the hopelessness that 90% of teams face at the start of each season. Business has its place in the game, it needs to be monitored closely.

So who should inherit these solutions? Don’t expect the leagues to. The responsibility cannot be put on a specific league, (whether the Premier League or La Liga); the responsibility must be acknowledged by UEFA, as they are the only organization in a neutral position to bring regulations over all European league clubs. Individual leagues cannot be expected to police themselves at the expense of losing players, money, and popularity to other European leagues. In other words, the Premier League would never institute a salary cap without the rest of Europe coinciding, or else they would pay the price of losing players to other leagues and watching those leagues carry out a dictatorship environment similar to the one present today. UEFA must realize the issue at hand and assume an authority position over the European leagues. If a league fails to acknowledge these guidelines, don’t include them in UEFA, a dire mistake that would destroy any league quickly.

From the mouth of the great English footballer Kevin Keegan, "This league is in danger of becoming one of the most boring but great leagues in the world." Is that okay with you, or do you want more than 4 teams battling for the Premier League trophy each season? I know I do.