The
English Premier League: The Divide Between the ‘Have’ and the ‘Have-nots’
The English Premier
League has unfolded. The millions of fans across the globe have been impatient for
the new season to unfurl. The almost three months break had been an anxious phase
for them, analysing their clubs’ engagement and activities in the transfer
market and scrutinising the impact, each buying and selling of a player could
have on the fate of the club. Millions of dollars were exchanged along with
players, where the loyalty of the players came into being questioned along with
the aspiration and business acumen of the club owners, with the fans cherishing
the buying of a superstar to moaning the departure of their beloved one. Some
clubs have broken their record in buying players while others have profited on
the talent of players to fill the club’s coffer. However, the EPL is a case of ‘have’
versus the ‘have-nots.’
Football today has
become a market commodity influenced and affected by the market forces. The
better you perform the better you are paid by the companies who line up to
endorse their products. Professionalism has taken out the competitive character
of football. The cliché level playing field no more exists. There was a time
when 100 pounds was a record signing fee but today 40 million plus a pound
cannot buy you a player. Some clubs are struggling to put a decent team
together, some are on the cusp of being declared bankrupt while some are
assembling a squad worth more than 500 million pounds. The market situation of
different clubs are in variance and those who are better positioned in the
market have the chances of reigning in success.
Football was in England
a game of the masses as compared to cricket which represented the elites. It
was a poor man’s sport. However, with the changing times the dimension of the
game has changed. The tickets costs a fortune for somebody living in the ‘third
world countries.’ The rise in communication technology has brought about this
change in the character of football matches. There was a time when people would
climb up trees and building tops to witness a game, but the satellite
television has transformed the social character of the game. Satellite television with its potential to
reach each and every corner of the globe has transformed the game, raising its
commercial stakes higher than one would have envisaged. This has brought more
financial strengths to the clubs which are big, has a pedigree, and can boast
of global fan following. This created financial gaps between different clubs,
though in EPL the television rights and earnings are shared by all the 20
participating clubs unlikely in La Liga where the big clubs negotiate their own
terms and conditions leaving the smaller clubs on their own and with less of
bargaining power. However, with their earnings from televisions rights and the
sale of merchandise at the global level the big clubs enjoys the surplus of
funds for bringing superstars of the game to their clubs which further boasts
their position in the hierarchy as the haves and thereby gives them the
privilege to exploit the smaller ‘have nots’ clubs.
The smaller clubs,
though they may have a bigger history than some of the financially better off
clubs, struggles to train and produce their own players by investing time and
money in their developmental programmes but once the finished product are there
in the market the bigger ones at the opportune time catch them and alienate the
smaller clubs from their product. The power of money becomes the key element in
determining the stature of the clubs. History is witness to the likes of
Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Sheffield, both United and
Wednesday being the darling of the English public before the advent of
commercialisation of football in England. But with the petrodollars being
invested in clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, the former champion clubs have
not been in the position lately to challenge the hegemony and dominance of the
bigger clubs spending multiple times more than their budget and not allowing
them a level playing field. This absence of level playing field has forced FIFA
to bring in the Financial Fair play but this has not yet had the effect it was
desired to have.
The haves of EPL still
are the favourites among the football pundits at the beginning of the season to
win the championship. Chelsea, Manchester City are the front-runners to become
the EPL champions, and two among Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool being
the favourites to qualify alone with them for the very lucrative Champions
League this year. The crux of the matter however is, these are
the clubs to have invested more and have made more profit than other clubs
participating in the EPL. The divide between the haves and haves not is
reflected by the fact that only Blackburn Rovers has won the EPL, when they had
the most expensive player in Chris Sutton along with Alan Shearer, in its 22
years history dominated by Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and lately
Manchester City some of the richest clubs in the world and history of football.
