IN THE UNLIKELY event a Premier League executive this week paused and considered their world for a moment, it’s easy to envision them like Principal Skinner, thinking aloud, ‘Am I so out of touch?’ before reassuring themselves that, no, it is the financially-squeezed fans who are wrong.
As the UK faces into a horror winter of spiralling bills and falling living standards, its Premier League clubs keep on throwing money around, summed up once again by the grotesque spectacle of a Sky Sports reporter shouting out their Whatsapp message about the latest eight-figure sum paid for a second-rate player. A global credit crunch and a pandemic hasn’t stopped the spending, so this latest crisis won’t either.
The sums spent are truly remarkable, to the point that it’s abundantly clear that the Super League fans fretted about last year has long-since existed in England. The sumer’s gross spend was £1.9 billion and Brentford’s net spend was both the eighth-lowest in England and yet only £3 million less than that of Serie A, La Liga, Ligue Un, and the Bundesliga combined.
The spending of the money is increasingly seen as the entire point of the exercise, with a growing constituency of supporters now more passionate about transfers than trophies.
It is all horribly out of touch with the lived experience of so many of the clubs’ fans, but it is better to think of the Premier League less as a sporting competition than a television show. And thus its fans aren’t really the beating heart of their clubs any more, but instead provide a kinetic backdrop and loud soundtrack to the Premier League’s television programmes.
The glory game was summed up this week in a Financial Times piece detailing Todd Boehly’s £4.25 billion takeover of Chelsea.
“Effectively, [Chelsea] was a distressed sale in a content and media heavy asset where you own your global rights,” said a person with direct knowledge of [Boehly's] thinking. “If you put a dispassionate investor hat on, it’s a good investment. I know the bright lights of sports and Chelsea take that away, but it is a media and technology investment.”
Chelsea is a media and technology investment in a competition increasingly putting its storyline above its sport.
Advertisement
The new ‘let it flow’ diktat has been handed down to supposedly speed up the games and keep the ball in play, but what has ultimately happened is that the deterrence has been removed and players will just find a harsher, more dangerous foul to slow down games.
It’s as if the new mandates have been calibrated for maximum seethe: would we really have seen the tremendous handbags between Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte if Anthony Taylor had whistled for an obvious foul on Kai Havertz in the lead-up to Spurs’ first equaliser? It may have been against the spirit of the game’s rules, but it provided days worth of script for the television show.
Mark Clattenburg refereeing Chelsea vs Spurs in 2016. PA
PA
Such vibes-based officiating is nothing new. Remember Mark Clattenburg, who approached the title-deciding clash between Spurs and Chelsea in 2016 less as a referee than a kind of auteur, determined to put his own imprint on the game?
“I allowed them [Spurs] to self-destruct so all the media, all the people in the world went: ‘Tottenham lost the title. If I sent three players off from Tottenham, what are the headlines? ‘Clattenburg cost Tottenham the title.’ It was pure theatre that Tottenham self-destructed against Chelsea and Leicester won the title. I helped the game. I certainly benefited the game by my style of refereeing.”
The Premier League rips off the local fans it hasn’t already alienated, while, having already flogged its players, is now rolling back protection on the field to serve the spectacle it sells to the rest of the world.
“I think we’ve got our football back”, said Graeme Souness after that Chelsea/Spurs drama of a few weeks ago, spectacularly missing the point. His football is long gone, sold to oligarchs and venture capitalists and nation states.
The Premier League exists unmoored from the reality it purports to represent, but for as long as the spectacle remains compelling and the tills keep on ringing, they really don’t seem to care.
Premier League fixtures (kick-off 3pm unless stated)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
7 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Crazy summer spending exposes the Premier League for the TV show that it is
IN THE UNLIKELY event a Premier League executive this week paused and considered their world for a moment, it’s easy to envision them like Principal Skinner, thinking aloud, ‘Am I so out of touch?’ before reassuring themselves that, no, it is the financially-squeezed fans who are wrong.
As the UK faces into a horror winter of spiralling bills and falling living standards, its Premier League clubs keep on throwing money around, summed up once again by the grotesque spectacle of a Sky Sports reporter shouting out their Whatsapp message about the latest eight-figure sum paid for a second-rate player. A global credit crunch and a pandemic hasn’t stopped the spending, so this latest crisis won’t either.
The sums spent are truly remarkable, to the point that it’s abundantly clear that the Super League fans fretted about last year has long-since existed in England. The sumer’s gross spend was £1.9 billion and Brentford’s net spend was both the eighth-lowest in England and yet only £3 million less than that of Serie A, La Liga, Ligue Un, and the Bundesliga combined.
The spending of the money is increasingly seen as the entire point of the exercise, with a growing constituency of supporters now more passionate about transfers than trophies.
It is all horribly out of touch with the lived experience of so many of the clubs’ fans, but it is better to think of the Premier League less as a sporting competition than a television show. And thus its fans aren’t really the beating heart of their clubs any more, but instead provide a kinetic backdrop and loud soundtrack to the Premier League’s television programmes.
The glory game was summed up this week in a Financial Times piece detailing Todd Boehly’s £4.25 billion takeover of Chelsea.
“Effectively, [Chelsea] was a distressed sale in a content and media heavy asset where you own your global rights,” said a person with direct knowledge of [Boehly's] thinking. “If you put a dispassionate investor hat on, it’s a good investment. I know the bright lights of sports and Chelsea take that away, but it is a media and technology investment.”
Chelsea is a media and technology investment in a competition increasingly putting its storyline above its sport.
The new ‘let it flow’ diktat has been handed down to supposedly speed up the games and keep the ball in play, but what has ultimately happened is that the deterrence has been removed and players will just find a harsher, more dangerous foul to slow down games.
It’s as if the new mandates have been calibrated for maximum seethe: would we really have seen the tremendous handbags between Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte if Anthony Taylor had whistled for an obvious foul on Kai Havertz in the lead-up to Spurs’ first equaliser? It may have been against the spirit of the game’s rules, but it provided days worth of script for the television show.
Such vibes-based officiating is nothing new. Remember Mark Clattenburg, who approached the title-deciding clash between Spurs and Chelsea in 2016 less as a referee than a kind of auteur, determined to put his own imprint on the game?
“I allowed them [Spurs] to self-destruct so all the media, all the people in the world went: ‘Tottenham lost the title. If I sent three players off from Tottenham, what are the headlines? ‘Clattenburg cost Tottenham the title.’ It was pure theatre that Tottenham self-destructed against Chelsea and Leicester won the title. I helped the game. I certainly benefited the game by my style of refereeing.”
The Premier League rips off the local fans it hasn’t already alienated, while, having already flogged its players, is now rolling back protection on the field to serve the spectacle it sells to the rest of the world.
“I think we’ve got our football back”, said Graeme Souness after that Chelsea/Spurs drama of a few weeks ago, spectacularly missing the point. His football is long gone, sold to oligarchs and venture capitalists and nation states.
The Premier League exists unmoored from the reality it purports to represent, but for as long as the spectacle remains compelling and the tills keep on ringing, they really don’t seem to care.
Premier League fixtures (kick-off 3pm unless stated)
Everton vs Liverpool (12.30pm)
Brentford vs Leeds
Chelsea vs West Ham
Spurs vs Fulham
Newcastle vs Crystal Palace
Nottingham Forest vs Bournemouth
Wolves vs Southampton
Aston Villa vs Man City (5.30pm)
Sunday
Brighton vs Leicester (2pm)
Man United vs Arsenal (4.30pm)
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Premier League talking point