26 May 1999; on this day, Manchester United scored two goals in the last three minutes of the match to clinch the treble: the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League, the Premiership and the Football Association (FA) Cup, all in the same season! A football fan was born. Eight years later, times have changed, people have changed. The love for football is constant.
Exactly what is so exciting about a bunch of people kicking a ball around and trying to put it in a goal, even willing to lash out at each other physically and verbally? Well, defining football in terms of pure animal instincts is blasphemous in itself. Like any other sport, football is an art. There is beauty in watching brilliant passing moves or skills and an inexplicable thrill in executing them yourself. There is a passion to have a favourite team or player; the same passion which makes you keep your studs (football shoes) and a pair of shorts, always ready to be picked up at the shortest notice.
Football has massive global appeal, evident from the interest shown in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2006, held in Germany and the keenness with which the European Leagues are followed. However, the English Premier League continues to be the blue-eyed boy. With foreign ownership and a new sponsorship deal coming in, the League is expected to be second biggest sporting league in the world, only after the National Football League (NFL) in USA.
The Barclays Premier League (known so for sponsorship reasons) is akin to heroin for an addict, the Bible for a Christian, a must-watch for any football fan. From being a mere breakaway league to being the face of English football, it has made football more than just a game, a rabid eruption of passion, emotions and money with a fan base not limited to one country, in terms of numbers or enthusiasm. There is wondrous journey that the league took to be where it stands now. Today, people stay up late to watch games, get together to discuss their team's fortune, save their pocket money for apparel, go into bouts of depression because their team lost to arch rivals and celebrate like maniacs on victory. One wonders, what made the League such a humungous success? What drives it? Why is it so popular?
The Football Association was established in 1863 making football one of the oldest sports in England. Yet, England has won the World Cup only once, as hosts in 1966. Further, till the late 1980s, the playing conditions, facilities, promotion et al of the game were surprisingly pathetic. This was turned around with investment in stadia and other infrastructure. The England team reaching the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup in 1990 brought the game into focus, leading to establishment of the FA Premier League in 1992 with 22 contesting teams. This was reduced to 20 in 1995. The league was a huge success and fulfilled its purpose of tapping the enormous potential of football, in terms of popularity as well as investment. Consider this, in 1991-1992, one year before the formation of the Premier League, the total revenue of Division One clubs was Great Britain Pounds (GBP) 170 million; in 2005-2006, the total revenue of Manchester United, a single team, was GBP 168 million.
The Premier League operates as a corporation. It is owned by the 20 member clubs, all of which are considered a shareholder with one vote each. The clubs elect a Chairman, Chief Executive and Board of Directors to oversee the daily operations. The Football Association, the governing body of English football, has a veto power with regard to some issues. The 20 clubs play all the other teams twice in a season, once at their home stadium and once at the opponents'; amounting to 38 games per team in a season, which lasts from August to May. There are three points for a win and one point for a draw. The teams are ranked by total points, and then the goal difference followed by the goals scored, which is usually sufficient to decide the winners, the teams with UEFA Champions League spots (the first four teams) and the three teams to be relegated to the Football League Championship.
40 teams have been part of the League since its inception in 1992. Only seven have been in all 15 till 2006. The teams themselves are mega-corporations with massive turnovers and profits, their own infrastructure, shareholders, training centers and youth programs. Of course, their primary activity is maintaining and developing a football team. Along with that comes a host of commercial activity like apparel trade, mascots and campaigns, to name a few, all of which translates into revenue and popularity.
Of all teams, the richest and most successful four teams, popularly known as the 'Big Four' are Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Manchester United is the most successful, winning the League nine times, out of a total of 15. Arsenal and Chelsea have won the league three and two times respectively, with Liverpool being the only one without a League title. These teams have the largest number of supporters, attract the world's biggest players, have a healthy and sometimes unhealthy rivalry.
A major reason for the success of these teams is being part of the UEFA Champions League. The top four teams from the League get to participate in the competition, which results in a near doubling of revenue earned in a season. This leads to more money available for investment, which translates into better results.
The competition in the League is not just a matter of money. It is after all, a sport and so it involves ego- of club owners, big players, team fans, club managers, and of each person associated with the game. It is an insult to lose a game to an archrival, whereas a victory implies bragging rights. Further, for some teams it is about winning the League, for others it is about staying in the league, for yet others it is about grabbing European competition spots and lastly it is the prerogative of some to break free from an established pecking order to live their wildest dreams of achievement. All of this results in fierce, cutthroat competition and that leads to a persistent drive towards development in a professional and efficient way. This is reflected in the state of the art facilities, which other sports would do well to ape. Each club has its own stadium with capacities running into tens of thousands. The largest stadium is Old Trafford, owned by Manchester United with a seating capacity of 76,100! The maximum attendance ever has been 76,098 fans, to watch a single match; the average attendance for a Premier League game being 34,363 fans. Apart from the stadiums, the teams invest in support staff, medical staff, technical staff, marketing, public relations, and every other aspect you can think of, to keep up with the times. Use of technology for analysis, strategy and training is not a whim, but a necessity. To quote an example (not the typical and I daresay, outdated one of video analysis), some teams use a facility called the ice room for muscle toning, which exposes players to ice cold fumes to limber up muscles.
Naturally, the most important part of all teams is the players. Premier League clubs have almost complete freedom to sign whatever number and category of players they wish. There is no team or individual salary cap, no squad size limit, no age restrictions other than those applied by general employment law, no restrictions on the overall number of foreign players, and few restrictions on individual foreign players. At the inception of the League in 1992-1993, only a handful of players hailed from outside England. Such is the impact of the League, that by 2004-2005, nearly half the players in the League were foreigners. The other half of course, hail from England, most having come up through the excellent youth programs, which are an integral part of each corporation (club). It is a matter of great prestige to be playing football in the Premiership, probably a dream for millions of youngsters. The good part for the English youth is that there is no lack of incentives to get involved in the sport. First, the iconic status and adoration, something similar to what happens to cricketers in India. Second, the money raked in. The average annual salary in 2003-2004 was GBP 676,000, a whopping five and a half crore. Being the top league in the world, the best players are wooed by the clubs. To cite an example, Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United's star defender earns GBP 120,000 a week, approximately INR 1 crore in one week. And that is excluding endorsement.
It is a truism to state that football is a popular sport, but it is business acumen to study what makes it so. Of course, it is a brilliant game, requiring skill and strategy, enthralling the public's demand. But it is greatly aided by an aspect called Marketing. This includes promotion of the League, promotion of teams and players. Along with that comes the whole media circus with views, reviews, speculation, controversy, expert opinions and endorsements all fed to the eager masses. For each game played, there is week-in analysis plus a pre-match and post-match program, all beefed up with some small competition or the other. Hence to increase TV ratings, a ludicrous fee is paid to the Premiership (currently GBP 1.7 billion as TV rights). In return, the channels provide in-house analysis, earn equally ludicrous advertisement rates and give away a few T-shirts and mobile phones as prizes. This goes to explain why there are umpteen number of football shows in all countries and one of the punch lines is 'The Greatest Show on Earth'. Of course, the attention is not solely on the football being played. It is about controversy and gossip, be it personal or professional. Football players are celebrities, constantly under the scanner, being paid fantastic salaries for playing and being intruded upon. This is not to say whether they enjoy it or not.
So, football at the base, complemented with investment, marketing, popularity and passion, and substituted by none has become a humungous industry, an industry with its managers, its members, its supporters and money. Revenues, marketing, salaries, investments, profits, transfers; the whole league is a churning pot of money, a very large amount of money. This money goes to the corporations, the government, as tourism, taxes or fines. Then, it goes to the people, is spent by them and keeps circulating in the economy. The money becomes someone's income, the work becomes someone's employment, and the game becomes someone's passion. This passion supports an industry, is supported by another industry, and becomes an industry in itself. The winner is not just football, it is just about everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment