Premier League sells its soul again

Good ole’ football. A game that draws the classes together, and stretches out a charitable hand to those lesser off. At least that is how it used to be.

Now, we all know that the Premier League is a capitalist monopoly, much like the world today, where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and charity is just a name. Just a term. But that’s missing the point. On the 7th of February, the Premier League announced plans to shift the Premier League to the rest of the world. Of course Richard Scudamore will bleat about taking the image of the Premier League to a whole new level, but the fact is that many of you will be reading this in places like China, Malaysia, Australia or the USA. Does the Premier League really need more exposure? Will the extensive commercialisation of the game really benefit the game overall?

No, it will not. This decision was made between the top-flight clubs, and the Premier League, and they should have unanimously just come out and said, ‘You know what? We just want to get stinking rich.’ That ultimately is the goal. Hell, even the FA came out with a statement right after the proposal was made, saying, “We understand the reasons for this proposal, and the benefits it will bring to this association as a whole.” We all know what those benefits will be.

I know I may be upsetting some readers living in the Far-East, and I acknowledge that there are hordes of Liverpool, Manchester United fans there, but would they all come out of the woodwork to watch Wigan - Bolton? Assuming those two teams are in the Premier League come, 2010? You can safely bet that the Premier League will not let Liverpool - Manchester United ties, Chelsea - Arsenal ties out of this country, so will there be as more demand for a ticket to go see the mighty Derby? Or a current Championship team? I think not. Maybe the simple fact that it is the Premier League will draw in the masses. Who knows?

One thing is for certain though, is that when this was announced, all the fans of the Football League were proud to support a club in the Football League. They were proud that their team did not have the chance to agree to this scheme. I for one felt a pang of shame to think that my club thought that this was a good idea. Well, I suppose it was a good idea. Hicks and Gillett (pictured), being from abroad like most Premier League club owners, felt that taking the game back to their homeland would be an opportunity too good to miss. David Moores would not have done this. He had made some silly decisions in his time, but this would not have been one of them.

Another thing does not stick with me. Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Melbourne and Miami have all been touted as possible venues. In fact, the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in Australia, which holds 100,000 people, and is not only one of the outstanding cricketing stadiums in the world, but one of the outstanding sporting arenas in the world. Anyway, they claimed, in the aftermath of this announcement, that they would sell-out the stadium, four times over. That’s 400,000 people! They didn’t allude to whether this was for a Man U - Liverpool, blood and guts encounter. Or a Villa - Bolton, sleepy Sunday afternoon stroll. Also, the number of matches in the season will be an odd number, meaning that each team will not play each other twice. Plus the way it will be seeded, will mean teams in the top 5 cannot play each other, meaning that a relegation struggler like Derby could be handed the task of playing Chelsea in an island in the Indian Ocean, whilst another relegation struggler like Sunderland, could go to Miami to play a far more acceptable tie for them against Birmingham. Thus giving themselves a distinct advantage over the poor Rams. It’s an injustice on all levels.

Recently announced was that these games would take place over one weekend in January. To allow for this, there would be no mid-week matches in the week before, and after the matches, in order to allow for travel arrangements. However, this has repercussions for the FA Cup, the showpiece event of English football (maybe they should give the world THAT as well). Not the main ties directly, but certainly the replays. Now that they have announced it, the Premier League, and the FA will have a heck of a job trying to sell this idea to the folks in England. In fact, Richard Scudamore was asked whether the fans of the clubs in England would be given the chance to have their say - he laughed, (no really, he did - but it wasn’t that evil sort of laugh - it would have been funny though). None of the traditions, and status of football was mentioned.

Another thing that just proves that money is the main motive is that places like Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and the Middle East are all big on their football. If the Premier League decided to send the game to a place like India, where football is big, but not as big as cricket, in order to promote the game, which does not have a single Indian player, or many players of Indian origin (like Michael Chopra springs to mind), surely that would have been more realistic? The clubs would not have been able to suck that much money out of India, compared to other parts of the world.

Premier League chairmen have touted it as an opportunity to make English football a worldwide brand. Is it not already then? Do the millions of fans of the big clubs worldwide not count then? The ones in the Far East certainly get their chance to sample the Premier League every pre-season. How can we call this league the English Premier League anymore? Because it is most certainly not. Its got nothing to do with proper football, which should be played in England.

Its emotional blackmail, that’s what it is. The fans of the clubs back here in England, will be told to support the club, even though they haven’t got their say, but will continue to support out of love for their club. So will I if it goes through. But my respect for the game’s governing bodies in England, would have reached an all-time low.

There is no doubt that this will be a roaring success. Unfortunately success is measured in pounds, and let me assure you, there will be a hell of a lot of that coming into the English game after this goes through. Football will be flaunted all around the world, and will become even more of a global phenomenon than it already is. But the very crux of the argument put forward by people like myself, and no doubt, many of you, is that tradition is being unceremoniously shunted into the corner, and cast aside with disdain.

The very essence of what makes the English Premier League, English, is being torn out. In a way, both me and you should not be surprised. Yet again, we see an example of football being the sporting prostitute it is. Spreading her legs to the highest bidder… It just isn’t the beautiful game anymore. It stopped being so a long time ago.

R.I.P Football.

By Maithri Jayasuriya