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.