Is the Premier League really premier quality?

One of the biggest stories in football this year was the announcement of the astronomical TV rights deal signed between sports TV giants Sky Sports & BT Sport and the Premier League, a deal worth 5.14 billion pounds to be exact. This makes an already wealthy league even more filthy rich. And this is only
from TV. Adidas famously signed a massive deal with Manchester United to supply kits and equipment, paying the club 75 million pounds per year over 10 years. The result: 8 of the 20 richest football clubs in the world are English. In comparison, 4 are Italian, 3 Spanish, 3 German, and 1 French. All 20 clubs in the BPL are in the top 40. Newcastle and West Ham, in 18th and 19th respectively,  are not participants in European competitions, which are the major source of revenue for the 12 non-English clubs in the top 20.  Basically, English clubs have more money than they know what to do with.

This, one would think, would be perfect for Premier League football. The clubs would be able to attract the best players, the best coaches and the best managers in the world. They would have the best facilities and larger stadiums. All this would translate to better, more exhilarating football than ever before. And this had been the case for some time. English clubs were at the pinnacle of European football between 2000 and 2012. It was expected that at least 1 English club would qualify for the semis of the Champions’ League every year. The Premier League also became as competitive as ever. Unlike other leagues, where 1 or 2 teams are usually in contention for the title, in England, 5 or 6 teams have a realistic chance of being crowned champions. This is what has made it the most popular league in the world. But the question emerges: do money, popularity and competitiveness mean better quality?

Recent trends seem to say otherwise. Since Chelsea won the Champions’ League in 2011/2012, only they have appeared in the semi finals. Once. Man United made the QFs in 2013/2014, and the next season they didn’t even qualify for the playoffs. Arsenal haven’t gone past the round of 16 in each of the last 5 years. There has even been talk of taking away one automatic qualification spot from England, on account of poor performance. Not exactly stellar for the richest league around, is it?

In the local league, things are not so rosy either. Chelsea were highly criticized for their performances in the second half of the season (parking the bus, it was called), yet they won the title with 3 games to spare.
The same team, with the same manager, in the same league, is now languishing in 15th place in the new season, only 5 months after John Terry held the coveted piece of silverware aloft.

More importantly, the events of the League Cup round of 16 this week, surprising as they were, put everything into perspective. 3 Champions’ League teams were knocked out, 2 by lower league opposition. Of the 3, only Chelsea may even have a smidge of an excuse; they were away at Stoke, a tougher opponent. Arsenal and MUFC did not even try to put up a fight. They were completely outplayed and outfoxed by Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesborough respectively. Some may argue that the Capital One Cup is not prestigious enough to fight for, but performances such as those that were witnessed midweek are completely unacceptable, even in a friendly.

In fact, the quality of football itself has gone down in England. Gone are the days of flowing team moves, incisive through passes and long range goals. Gone are the days of midfield masters, creative geniuses and deadly finishers. Gone are the days of beautiful, entertaining football. All that seems to drive us to watch Premier League games every weekend is the prospect of surprise losses and unexpected wins.

Analyzing the quality of football is not something one can fully exhaust using words or statistics; you just have to watch a weekend of games to see what I’m talking about. However, let me pick out a few examples that may help to illustrate how far the league has fallen:

Isn’t it amazing that all 20 managers in one league can choose to play one formation, 4-2-3-1? This formation is predominantly made for counterattacking teams. The best example was Mourinho’s Real Madrid. I have never seen such blistering pace, served week in, week out, against all and sundry, in my life. It is a very easy formation to set up your team in, due to its defensive strength, and is primarily designed to play against teams who play formations which are not as solid. However, it doesn’t favor meaningful possession of the ball. When you have the ball for long periods of time, you cannot create chances easily. Therefore, if both teams in a game are using this formation, chances are they will cancel out, and you end up with situations such as a first 0-0 draw in 62 Manchester derbies.

Managers also have become more about the result than the performance. A bad showing that results in a win due to an own goal has become better than a good performance that ends goalless. Teams these days are set up to avoid losses rather than to play to win. Flair and skill in English football is slowly being replaced by brute strength and pace. Attackers are being drilled to defend, rather than defenders being encouraged to attack. The end result is football as tasteless as flat Coke.

In the 2 other ‘big leagues’, the Bundesliga and La Liga, there is almost total dominance by Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid, due to unequal allocation of TV rights in Spain and unfair financial regulations in Germany. However, when German and Spanish teams meet English opposition in European competitions, chances are the latter will be steamrolled, even by clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla. (No wonder in 2012/2013, all four Champions’ League semi-finalists were German and Spanish.) In these two leagues, there is more emphasis on team play, attacking prowess and chance creation, than defensive stability. Attack is valued over defense. Admittedly, teams concede more goals, but football is much more entertaining and productive than on English pitches. This situation is mirrored even on the international scene. The last two World Cup champions were Germany and Spain. England managed round of 16 and group stage exits in those editions of the tournament. Evidently, there is something wrong with English football.

Maybe this quandary is partly caused by the amount of emphasis on football development across Europe. A new study, for example, shows that 55% of players in the Premier League are foreign, compared to 46% in Germany and 35% in Spain. A club like Chelsea, due to the availability of massive funds, only has 1 youth product in its starting XI. Most of Chelsea’s youth players end up on loan or sold to accommodate the club’s big-money signings. The problem here is twofold: some of the signings may fail to fit in the club, the best example being Kevin de Bruyne, and the standard of football in England suffers as a result.

The insane amounts of money available may also be lowering the emphasis on good football. Case in point: last year’s champions earned 99 million pounds, from TV, merit awards for their league placing in the Premier League and other payments. The runners up earned 98.5 million pounds. That means being champions was worth 1.5 million, which is only 1.5% of their total earnings. QPR, who had only 34% of Chelsea’s point total, made 65% of Chelsea’s earnings. Manchester United even earned more than Arsenal, who finished higher than them. Thus, lose, win or draw, they still make money. Titles are only for prestige, not monetary incentive. Teams are thus not as driven to play winning football as would be expected.

If the Premier League would come up with enticing incentives for winning games and winning titles, emphasize on youth development (for example by limiting number of transfers a club can make over a period of years) and find a way to encourage attacking verve instead of defensive solidity, chances are that we will see a better, more entertaining brand of football, English clubs will match their dominance in the bank with dominance on the pitch, and the Three Lions may just win their second trophy ever soon. Or what do you think?