WHEN FOOTBALL TURNED PREMIER

An article by Professor Wyn Grant, Politics and International Studies

It is 20 years since the English Premier League burst onto the world’s sporting scene with a fanfare. Professor Wyn Grant, himself an avid football fan, looks at the effect the Premier League has had on our glorious game and asks: Is its model now under threat?

The Premier League, which celebrates its creation this week, has transformed English football. Whether it has done so for the better is the subject of much argument. On the whole, it is criticised more than praised, although the counter factual of what football would be like without it is rarely pursued systematically.

Television money, admittedly not a large sum at first, was originally distributed among the 92 clubs in the Football League. In 1965 the BBC paid as little as £5,000 for the right to show highlights on Match of the Day, distributed as £50 to each club. Even when the sum increased, this principle of equal distribution did not please what were then regarded as the ‘Big Five’ clubs: Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Spurs (note the absence of Chelsea).

In 1981 they made their first threats to break away and form a super league. They were appeased by an agreement that in future the home club could keep all the gate receipts in home games, not share them with the away team. The share of such receipts from away matches at big clubs had been a boost for smaller clubs.

In 1985 a more serious threat to break away got the First Division clubs 50 per cent of all television and sponsorship money. In 1988 the Big Five did their own deal with ITV, which was worried about the emergent threat from satellite broadcasting.

It was satellite broadcasting that was to underpin the Premier League model. It became a key feature of BskyB’s appeal to subscribers and gave the Premier League increasing revenues with each new agreement, although it is important to note that overseas television rights are contributing an increasing proportion of the total amount. The Premier League is one of Britain’s most successful exports, valued in Asia as an uncorrupted basis for gambling.

Paradoxically, hardly anyone in football makes any money out of the Premier League.

In 1992 the First Division clubs resigned as a group from the Football League and the Premier League was born. ITV bid £262m for the television contract but Sky offered £305m for five years.

Paradoxically, hardly anyone in football makes any money out of the Premier League. Most clubs are run at a loss with wealthy benefactors making up the difference. The Glazers think that they can make money out of the Manchester United ‘franchise’ and maybe they can, although it is most likely to come in the form of a capital gain when the club is sold. Their acquisition of the club was founded on debt in the form of a series of complex arrangements which are difficult to untangle.

The Premier League has brought in more money through the gate, in terms of sponsorship, corporate lounges and merchandise sales. However, players’ salaries have rocketed in tandem, as have the fees demanded by their agents.

Many charges are levelled at the Premiership. Some fans resent the arrival of foreign owners from Russia, the United States, the Gulf States and, most recently, India. However, although there have been instances of such owners misunderstanding the character of the game, foreign owners are not necessarily any worse than domestic ones. The days when clubs were owned by prosperous local businessmen were not a golden age.

More resentment is probably levelled at foreign players than foreign owners. Their presence in numbers is seen as undermining the English national team by reducing the opportunities for native players to develop and play at the highest level. The Premier League does pump millions into grass roots football and youth development.

Many fans resent the way in which the traditional fixture time of 3pm on Saturday has been eroded. One match is typically played in the early evening on Saturday, two or more on Sunday and one on Monday. It is the highlights programme on BBC2 on Sunday evening that typically has the most attractive matches.

However, one feature of the traditional system that has been retained is promotion and relegation to the lower leagues, a feature that often baffles American ‘franchise’ owners who are used to a clear and persistent distinction between major and minor leagues as found in leading US sports. The only way a community can acquire a major league club is by buying the franchise from somewhere else.

UEFA’s financial fair-play rules are having an increasing impact on the strategies of clubs.

In practice the top clubs are never in danger of relegation. The Premier League is effectively sub-divided into three divisions. At the top is a group of clubs competing for the Champions League places. These are usually Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, joined in the last couple of years by Manchester City.

There is then a mid-table league of clubs who, at best, might hope for a Europa league place but are unlikely to be in danger of relegation. Finally, there is a relegation league which usually includes at least one of the newly promoted clubs. Even if they do well in their first season, they often find the second season tougher.

The model is under threat from two directions. The economic downturn has not had that much of an effect: revenues have held up well, although there are fewer prospective purchasers of clubs on the market. However, UEFA’s financial fair-play rules, which start to come into effect next season, are having an increasing impact on the strategies of clubs. It will be more difficult in the future for a benefactor to buy success on the model of Chelsea and Manchester City.

The Premier League is also worried about piracy or, as it prefers to call, it digital theft. The Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore argues, “it erodes the investment that delivers the quality that makes it worth stealing in the first place... That is why we send staff to drink half a pint in pubs suspected of illegal broadcasting”.

Even so, the Premier League is here to stay. It delivers an exciting spectacle in stadiums on which £2 billion has been spent since it was formed and is enjoyed by many more armchair viewers. As a formula, it has been a success.