Today it’s almost a M1/M6 Premiership. Once you have left the five clubs in London behind, it’s a short journey off the M6 to the four West Midlands clubs. You then pass through Stoke and it’s not too far off the motorway to the two Manchester clubs or those on Merseyside. Bolton, Wigan, Blackpool and Blackburn are all easily accessible. That leaves just two clubs outside London, the West and North Midlands and the North-West: Newcastle and Sunderland. Forty per cent of the clubs are in the north-west.
Today it’s almost a M1/M6 Premiership. Once you have left the five clubs in London behind, it’s a short journey off the M6 to the four West Midlands clubs. You then pass through Stoke and it’s not too far off the motorway to the two Manchester clubs or those on Merseyside. Bolton, Wigan, Blackpool and Blackburn are all easily accessible. That leaves just two clubs outside London, the West and North Midlands and the North-West: Newcastle and Sunderland. Forty per cent of the clubs are in the north-west.
If we go back to the inaugural season of the Premiership in 1992-3, when there were 22 clubs, there were six in London, not that much different from today’s share. The West Midlands was less strongly represented with two clubs and the north-west’s share was lower at 27 per cent. What is striking is how much more strongly the east side of the country was represented with seven clubs as against two today: two in East Anglia, three in Yorkshire (including both Sheffield clubs), one in the East Midlands (Forest) and one in the north-east. The picture was completed by a south coast club (Southampton).
When it was founded the geography of the Premiership was much more diverse. Is it possible for communities the size of Ipswich and Norwich to compete in the modern Premiership unless they are benefactor clubs like Wigan?