It’s fashionable to bash the Premier League. It may be a commercial success, it may bring world class players to England and it may have a global profile, but this only encourages its opponents to cut down the tall poppy.
The charges are well known, and they are not all without some justification, but are often exaggerated. It is claimed that it has undermined the national team; it has killed off lower level teams and grass roots football; and the players are all overpaid.
It’s fashionable to bash the Premier League. It may be a commercial success, it may bring world class players to England and it may have a global profile, but this only encourages its opponents to cut down the tall poppy.
The charges are well known, and they are not all without some justification, but are often exaggerated. It is claimed that it has undermined the national team; it has killed off lower level teams and grass roots football; and the players are all overpaid.
Impressive writers like David Conn insist that it’s all better in Germany and they have a point when it comes to ticket prices, particularly for away fans. The Conn argument chimes in with Ed Miliband’s favourite book on Varieties of Capitalism, Miliband taking the lesson that Britain needs to be more like Germany. Although co-author Peter Hall from Harvard is a good friend of mine, this book has done a lot of damage.
It was therefore refreshing to see an article by Matthew Syed in The Times yesterday which takes a similar view to one that has been argued here. Syed identifies the constant criticism of the Premier League as ‘the Drone’ which is a sort of equivalent of Michael Gove’s description of the education establishment as a ‘Blob’.
Syed in particular tackles the question of players being overpaid, pointing out that the same criticisms are not levelled at entertainment stars – and, in a sense, football is a branch of the entertainment industry. It might also be pointed out that the Premier League contributes a big sum in tax revenues.
Syed argues that he is left with the sense that is really objectionable in football is ‘the social class of those who earn it.’ (We have made a similar point before, but also extended it to ethnic minority status). Syed says, ‘It is fine for well-spoken businessman to earn lots, or top tennis players, but not all those terrible oiks from Chelsea and Liverpool.’