But profit is not really the purpose of the exercise. Not that they will actually make any money out of the Premier League, where most clubs continue to rack up losses. With the unstoppable growth of a globalised finance sector that pays a small number of people huge salaries while becoming increasingly disengaged from the rest of the domestic economy, the Premier League is an even sharper analogy of the British economy the lower leagues find themselves falling further and further behind, with club owners risking ever more debt in a gamble to join the charmed circle. The wild inflation of the housing market by the global super-rich is matched by the escalating and implausible prices paid for football clubs. As the past 30 years have seen a widespread sell-off of communal assets to foreign states, so too in football. These are all particularly English stories. A big part of the league’s televisual appeal appears to rest on the intensity of supporters and the relentless attacking football this encourages and this despite huge increase in ticket prices, a rapidly ageing audience and the deadening effect of ever more corporate stadiums.
However, if globalisation has been the mainspring of the league’s growth, it has always relied on English clubs’ local narratives and identities to frame it and the energy and culture of the English crowd to animate it. The Premier League is a very English story, for it is obvious that power, voice and influence can all be purchased here Over the past 30 years, seemingly impervious to the global financial crisis, austerity and Brexit, the league’s annual turnover has soared by an astronomical 2,900%. But it is economic globalisation itself that has been the main driver, generating an upward spiral of growth. The league has benefited from an income-sharing model among the clubs that ensures, if not widespread competition for the top spots, a fiercely competitive league on a game by game basis, as it has from astute marketing, world-class broadcasting and the value of English as a global language.
Foreign coaches, once entirely absent, are now in the majority, as are foreign owners, who hold majority stakes in 16 out of the 20 clubs.
Then the entirely foreign XI fielded by Chelsea in 1999 announced the globalisation of the league’s labour market foreign players now make up around three-quarters of the club’s squads. First, the Premier League’s global TV audience outstripped domestic viewership. It is a fitting marker for the league’s 30th season and its three decades of hyper-globalisation. The date must contain two-digits for the month, two-digi\ts for the day, and four-digits for the year.
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