Sunday, July 1, 2007

Commentry on Friend's Blog

I would like to comment on Vjay's blog entry titled "The Rising EPL".

Link to Vjay’s blog: http://www.woshitiancaiertong.blogspot.com/

Yes, I totally agree with Vjay that the English Premier League (EPL) is on the up rise. It’s now the third biggest grossing sport, still behind the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. But I have no doubt that in time, the EPL will top the word as the highest grossing sport. Soccer in the beautiful game after all….

But what has made the EPL such a success. Like Vjay said, the English football scene wasn’t as glamorous in the past, having its fair share of hooliganism and out-of-control fans. But the scene of English football today has seen a dramatic change. There hardly is any domestic violence and the conduct of the English fans are by far the best if you compare them with the fans of other big footballing nations like Brazil, Argentina. Italy, and Spain. So bad is the violence in Argentina that the fields are actually surrounded with a extremely high metal fence to prevent the raging fans from getting onto the pitch and harming the players and opposing fans. In Italy, the violence was so great that there were cases of deaths, which resulted in the footballing body in Italy actually banning fans from entering the stadium to watch the matches. It was highly humorous seeing those top teams in Italy playing their matches in virtually zero crowds. Where is the fun in that??? The players did not even get the mood to celebrate after they had scored.

That’s nothing compared to what happened in Spain. Racist taunts were the scene of Spanish football last season. There were a few black African players that were taunted by the opposing teams’ fans. They made offensive hoots and monkey actions at them. One particular world-class player, Samuel E’To, was also subject to these cruel taunts and wanted to walk of the pitch because of them.


Why not in England then??? Because the English Football Association has implemented harsh stands and fines to stem hooliganism. Their efforts have not been in vain with the fan conduct in their domestic league being one of the best in the world. Which is why the English Premier League is so marketable. Besides being host to some of the world’s best football teams and world-class football players, the enormity of fan support in England is astounding. It’s no surprise that billionaires, who have never watched football before, can become so engrossed in it the next minute.

The EPL now is becoming home to not only the world’s best football player, but also to the world’s richest billionaires. More than 5 clubs are being owned by billionaires with the most high profile billionaire to enter the scene being ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The fan base that these billionaires can tap on is worldwide. Not like some sports like, Rugby, which is not so popular in Asia.

It goes without saying these rich investors are going to even further the popularity of the EPL, but there are certainly going to be the negatives of such things. In football, if you have the money, you can get the best players who in turn can get you the victories that you want. Thus, there is the problem of the league being too one-sided. The richer teams will eventually end up owning the poorer teams. That’s just the way it is. At the end of the day, football will always be money driven sport.

With this bring the only problem I see in EPL, maybe the English Football Association can bar such transactions where rich billionaires take over clubs, already financially capable, and perhaps request for them to invest in a poorer club. Although the answer is going to be “no” due to the lesser marketing power of lesser popular clubs, it’s worth a try…its time we made the game beautiful and fair again…

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