“What Is The Future Of The Premier League Outside Europe?” Essay

Dissertation on

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Introduction
Football is the blood sport for the European people. Since last fifty years it is a part of the national affairs for some countries in Europe. The principle ways of competition among these countries is the domestic leagues that took place on a frequent basis. As compare to other countries, only few people of other countries outside Europe use to know about football because international football was not that much famous at the beginning of the era. But with globalization and cultural mix, football started spreading at a high pace all over the world. This is due to the invention of Television and modernization of media that led to the spread of the ironic sport all across the globe (Koning and Albert, 2007).
Here in this research, a thorough study is made on the past and present of football to predict the future aspects of Premier league outside Europe. For completing the study some research have been done on the power of the football clubs who dominants the domestic football leagues in Europe. By studying the past it has been known that the spread of football started in the 20th century after the first telecast of the world cup match in 1954. During that period movement of players became mobile but that was very rare in nature. Most of the countries like England didn’t welcome foreign players to play for the domestic clubs. But the view has totally changed in the present age (Kilpatrick, 2014). Europe is now struggling with the future of football and this has haven’t because of the need of a common market for football to spread it all over the world.

Research objective

The main objective of this research is to study the past and future of the Premier League in Europe to predict the future of Premier League inside and outside Europe. It is mainly a study made to know how that society outside Europe reacts towards and game and what are the future prospects for the game in other countries outside Europe. The study mainly deals with knowing how many people watches football inside and outside of Europe and how many of them participate in the game. What the football authorities must do to spread the game more widely to spread equality in different society through this game. Though football is a sign of competition but it is played towards the equality of nations, players and fans participating in the game. The main countries in Europe participating in the Premier League are England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. But in this research the study is made on how football will be made popular outside Europe or all across the globe. For studying the future prospect of football outside Europe it is important to study the details of the management of football by the clubs and the authorities. Here in this research, a detailed study is also made to know how is more powerful in football, the players or the clubs and why people of Europe love this game from their heart.

Research questions

For conducting the research some questions have been studied and answers have been provided in the body of the research report to provide the outcomes and findings of the research. The questions studied in this research are as follows:

What is the past and present of Premier League outside Europe?

What is the future of the Premier League outside Europe?
Who has more power in football clubs, the players or the club?
What is football and why it is the most popular sports in Europe?
How many people watches football outside Europe and how many of them participate in the game?
Literature review
Premier League Present and Future
The Premier League is stated to be an English professional football league for the association of men’s football clubs in England. It is the top level football competition in UK contested by 20 clubs and the competition is operated by following systems of promotion and relegation for the teams featured in the competition. Apart from that the clubs such as the Welsh clubs and English clubs who complete in the English soccer pyramid can also take part in the competition by winning the qualification round. The present structure of Premier League has been complied with 20 clubs who are mentioned as the shareholders of Premier League Corporation. In the playing structure the seasons have been run in the month from August to May months while each playing team has to play twice with each other in home and away matches (Back, Crabbe and Solomos, 2003). Currently the Premier League has been sponsored by Barclays Bank and it officially known as Barclays Premier League while outside Europe it has been commonly known as The English Premier League (EPL) by its fan followers all around the globe.
In 1992 the football competition founded as the FA Premier League by following division of the Football League as per the clubs decision of clubs in First Division Football League that was initially started in 1888. As per the statistics the premier League is very popular in the country and it generates more than €2.2 billion per year television rights both in domestically and internationally. Studies have also revealed that The Barclays Premier League is listed among the top of the table of most watched football league in all over the globe that is telecasted among 4.7 million people in more than 212 countries. As per the analysis of the past five years Barclays Premier League is ranked second in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) regarding to league based performance in European football competitions. The popularity can be measured by the experts’ views as many of the experts from the field of football believe that Premier League has certainly possessed all the ingredients to set to be more popular outside Europe as well (Bose, 2012).
Till now 46 clubs have come into the picture of the league since its introduction in the country. Since the very beginning of its journey the Premier League has to face a lot of ups and downs all through the way. In 1991 aftermath of Hillsborough disaster a proposal was made to establish a new league in order to bring more money overall into the game of football. After many meeting of FA with the broadcasters and sponsors an agreement has been made to start a league in a brand new style to generate more revenue to the game. Therefore the break up in the First Division Football League gave birth of English Premier League (Brown, 2009). In the past decade the Premier League has certainly successful to gain pace in order to circulate its popularity not only in the Europe but also to the world where people are fonder of football. Looking towards its past record it can be easily mentioned Premier League will certainly continue its golden journey outside Europe too as lots of opportunities are knocking at the door (Gifford, 2004).

Source: (Szymanski, 2007)

Impact of Football Clubs and Players
In order to make a success summery of Premier League it has to be mentioned that without its football clubs and the players the success story of the league could not be completed (Robinson, 2011). Since the very beginning of the league the agreement of all the clubs to break up the First Division League to form Premier League has been hugely appreciated by the football community in order to present a classical football league that compiled with a lot of versatility. Since the inception of Premier League in 1992 there are 46 clubs have participated in the league up to last finishing season 2014-15. Out of 46, seven of them have succeeded to participate each of the years in the competition. The seven teams are Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Non English clubs Swansea City had gained promotion from the tournament in 2010-11 seasons. In the past decade or so especially in the Premier League it has said to be the dominance of” Big four” clubs namely Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. Since 2000 these four big clubs have dominated the league in a huge basis (Goldblatt, n.d.). The dominance of the clubs is not only in the league it can also be found in the community as well. The fan followers of these teams are hugely impressive and the matches of these clubs have been followed by most of the football community all around the globe (Grund, 2012).
The clubs have also been empowered with the values of its managers. In order to taste the success the importances of managers have been regarded hugely in the league. Some the big names such as Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Kenny Dalglish (Blackburn Rovers), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) have been most impressive as club managers and they all have recorded championship title win. Sir Alex Ferguson is mentioned as the longest serving managers in Premier League and he had huge impact as a manager in the league and among the players (Kassimeris, 2007). Besides the star players of the Big four clubs have mainly dominated the league but not as much as the club. There is always a vast dominance on players by their respective clubs. Players such as Alan Shearer, Andrew Cole, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Robbin van Persie have left huge impact on the Premier League. Alan Shearer is the highest goal scorer in the Premier League with 260 goals in all totals (Robinson, n.d.). Lot of non English players has made a huge impression in the league as well that certifies the game is not only about English players it is all about the others too (Koopman and Lit, n.d.). The performances and the class of football presented by the top ranked players in the league have always helped the league to generate more popularity. Therefore a certain amount of factors such as clubs and players have dominated the league in a great manner to ensure its growth outside Europe (Oberstone, 2010).

Popularity of the sports in Europe

As Premier League is marked as the most watched football league in the globe it has a lot of fan following in the Europe that has helped the football league to grow rapidly across the whole continent. The studies have shown that the presentation by the expertise level is one of the most important factors of the popularity of the event in Europe. Most of the matches have been organized at the weekends to attract more viewers in the stadium as well as in the television. The increase in the broadcasting section is highly impressive that is said to be improved by 65 percent on the previous campaign (Sulayem, O'Connor and Hassan, 2013). The Premier League Content Services that allows international broadcasters with programs all the day including match analysis, match discussion by experts, live analysis of a match and recorded matches that are appreciated by most of the people (Parsons and Rohde, 2014). Presently the centralized annual income from the broadcast has been calculated as £1.2 billion. Therefore the figure of income has said it all for the support and the popularity of the game itself. The market is also expanding as more and more people have involved themselves in the popularity figure of the league. Experts believe the popularity should increased more by the time as presentation and the competition of teams becoming more exciting.
People are enjoying the matches at its highest levels. In the stadium people are supporting their teams with extreme enthusiasm and passion that reveals the popularity. Not only are these people coming outside from the continent to enjoy the match atmosphere that shows the increasing popularity of the league itself. There is only one definite way for the league and that is to move further ahead by pleasing its fans all over the Europe as well as the world (Williams, 2003). The passionate supporters are the main asset of the game as on a given match day the support on the field and off the field speaks for itself. Though in Europe a lot of leagues have been playing in different countries such as La Liga, Bundes Liga, and Spanish Liga the popularity of English Premier League has been increased year on year basis outside Europe. The electrifying atmosphere at the stadium on the match day, the broadcasting with high level of analysis and discussion, news, views from experts, finest accommodation and most importantly the quality of the competition have earned a huge number of audiences towards the game that cannot afford to lose the telecast of their preferable matches (Ridley, 2012). The experience of watching a quality football match has always been the major factor of the success of Premier League. As each of the clubs is furnished with high class football stars and quality players each of the matches is equally competitive (Robinson, 2009). The guaranteed high quality matches has generated maximum number of viewers for the league and the numbers are seemed to be creeping up significantly in the upcoming years.

Methodology

Research Design
Research design is the blue print of the research that depicts the structure of the research report along with the procedures involved in the conducting the research. It is important to understand the research design to understand how the outcomes of the research are presented in the report. Different methods are used to present a research report. Some of them are descriptive research method, exploratory research and explanatory research. Descriptive method is helpful because it helps to provide all findings and results of the research in a descriptive way (Albert, Bennett and Cochran, 2005). It mainly focuses on providing the results and findings of the analysis with better understanding and huge knowledge base. In case of explanatory research the knowledge base is limited and does not allows to explain the research properly to the readers. In case of exploratory research it only focuses on the basic knowledge of the topic. Therefore in this research descriptive method of research has been to explain all the outcomes and findings of the research in a proper way to make understanding for the readers easy (Parent and Slack, 2007). Therefore, the use of descriptive method is justified in this research.

Sampling and population technique

Research on topic involves huge population to be considered. But to complete a research only few out of the huge population is considered because it is not possible to consider the total huge mass of population due to the limitation of the research. It is suggested by many researchers that to study on a topic on a given industry, it is important to consider the samples that are related to the field. Therefore the samples must be chosen keeping in mind the needs of the research (Bennike, Wikman and Ottesen, 2014). Therefore to choose the proper and exact population for sampling, different techniques are utilized. Here in this research, the study is made on clubs and countries that are chosen on a purposive sampling basis (Soderman, 2013). Through this sampling technique few articles and journals on future of premier league outside Europe are chosen for data collection for conducting the research. The purposive sampling method is opposite of random sampling technique in which the samples are chosen because of its relation to the topic. Hence, the use of the sampling technique is justified in this research.

Data collection and administration

Data collection and administration is one of the major tasks for developing the database for the research. Without proper data the research cannot be conducted and the needs of the research cannot be fulfilled. Different types of data collection methods are used for collecting data for a research. The first type of data collection method is primary data collection technique. In this method the data is collected directly from the primary sources in the form of personal interviews with the help of questionnaires made on the research topic. Another method of data collection is the secondary data collection techniques in which the data is collected from the secondary sources like books, articles, journals that are printed or found from internet sources. In this method data are collected by studying the secondary sources and observing the data found from the sources. For conducting this research the secondary data collection method is being used. Several articles and journals have been studied along with some internet sources to increase the database for completing the research (Blackburn and Thompson, 2007).

Data analysis

The most important and challenging task for conducting is a research is the data analysis. It is important for the researcher to have a proper analysis of the data and information for providing appropriate results and findings of the research. The first task of this process is to convert the raw data and information into variables for analysis of the data and information. This is done through proper sampling techniques and observation method of the data (Hallinan and Hughson, 2013). As it is already known that the main objectives of the research is to analysis the past and present of football outside Europe and predict the future of Premier league outside Europe. Here in this research, qualitative analysis method has been used in which the data and information is converted into variables and a descriptive analysis has been made on the data and variables. The results and outputs are presented through graphs and tables that are analyzed to provide the findings of the research.

Research Limitations

Every research has certain limitations and is bound by rules and regulations that governs the research study. It is important to maintain the ethics and conducts regulating the research study to complete the research appropriately and set an example for further research. The major limitation of a research is the time boundation for completing the research. Many other limitations are also faced that are unknown in nature and can be only understood while conducting the research. The time constraint of the research is presented in the appendix for further reference (Hopkins, 2012).

Results & findings

Future prospects of English Premier League outside Europe
Source: (Static.businessinsider.com, 2015)
The predicted figures are also boosting the fact of increasing demand of the said league in the most of the football playing as well as non football playing nation. The demographic target has been increased significantly as reports have suggested. Reports have also revealed that in the present situation half of the American football fan community has their own preferred Premier League club. Besides the surveys from China have confirmed from the total fan followers of football in China 64 percent fans have voted in favor of Premier League clubs of their choices. Apart from that the figure are quite improving in India, Japan, Australia and Middle East counties of Asia. The numbers of fan followers have been expected to hit new highs as the popularity of the league has driven craziness of football among many countries. The results have also showed the number of in-home TV viewers now has stretched to a record 3.9 billion while 777 million people have found to watch the league in the bars and pubs of the globe. The largest market of Premier League is mentioned to be as Asia and Australia region where it has been discovered that the matches of clubs such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea have been hugely preferred by 1.3 billion people.

Dominance of the football Clubs in Premier League

According to a CIES Football Observatory survey has revealed that the club dominance of Premier League in Europe can be further extended if the transfers spending by wealthiest clubs of Europe have been left unchecked. The March’s report of CIES has provided the figures of spending of five major European Leagues such as England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France since the 2009-10 sessions that has confirmed the major clubs are spending money more that they have done in the past. In 1998 where the big five clubs spent €6.9 billion on recruiting players now the spending figure has reached €8.6 billion in 2014-15. The average spending per club has been calculated as €70.4 million in 2009-10 seasons and the figure has seen a significant jump of €87.7 million per club on an average basis. The average increase in the spending on recruiting players has been confirmed as 24.5%. Overall the Premier League has seen a jump of 41.1 % on its spending. The signing fees amount of the clubs have increased around €171 million per club and the increase in recruiting per player is stated from €2.43 to 3.43 billion between the years 2009 to 2014.

A comparison of Spending in player transfer in 2009-10 and 2014-15 sessions

The above figure is presented to show the comparison of spending in player recruiting and transfer in Premier League. The study report has also suggested that high ranked top clubs have spend €189 million in 2009-10 seasons in recruiting the players and in 2014-15 the figure is recorded highest of €278 million. The increase in the figure is 47 % to be précised exactly.

Source: (Sportingintelligence.com, 2015)

The commanding positions of the clubs have certainly played a huge part in the league as more investment demands more control. Besides reports have predicted the upcoming £5 billion Premier League’s British TV rights deal in 2016-19 seasons can see a huge jump in the spending for the clubs prospective. Meanwhile the results have provide enough support in the present situation and even in the upcoming future the League will certainly be dominated by the clubs of Europe as the spending will increase dramatically boosting the power of the clubs. It can also help to improve the players’ situation as more players will be involved in the league as the league is full with fame and money can be rest assured.

Popularity reasons of football all over the globe including Europe

There are many supportive views and survey data that support truly for the extreme popularity of Premier League football in Europe as well as all over the world. The viewers’ figure of 4.7 billion all across the globe has certainly certified the popularity margin of the football event. Research data has shown the popularity of football league is due to the huge entertainment the game of football has provided to its audience. The game of football is one of the most international sports played all over the globe. The short span of every match has created enough excitement for the viewers to promote the game. In the modern time internet has also played its own part in promoting the game hugely. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook have huge success in order to take the football league to the next generation. The passion and enthusiasm related to this game is most impressive as far as surveys have confirmed.
In case of Europe where football is the best sports in countries such as England, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Greece and so on. People of Europe are enormously supportive in order to promote football at its highest level. In case of the outer world the popularity of the same sports has seen to be improving as more associate countries of the world becoming part of FIFA. Inspiring from Premier League many countries have started their own football league to promote the game. The increasing popularity of Premier League has succeeded to catch more attention from the investors to take the game more seriously. From that business prospective Premier League is certainly becoming a huge corporate business including several clubs, investors, players and fan followers all around the globe.
Source: (News.bbcimg.co.uk, 2015)
It is on the verge to become a community that certainly has got the potentiality to explore more new areas outside Europe inspiring other countries to promote the game in a new level. The popularity figures are impressive as mentioned before in the other parts of the world excluding Europe. Though several leagues have been played every year in South American countries and Asian countries but the success story of Premier League is way ahead from the others. In Europe the game has no doubt enormous chances but at the same time its future outside Europe is predicted to be outstanding in the upcoming years as target demographic are increasing for league matches.
Source: (News.bbcimg.co.uk, 2015)

Discussion

In order to start the discussion on the topic after the results and findings are supportive for Premier League, it is very important to note that year after year the Premier League is becoming a centre of corporate hub. A lot of money has been generated in the league business. The broadcasting rights and advertisement from the League have certainly presenting more economical support for the game. The league business has grown to a well maintained corporate culture where clubs and the higher authority engaged with the league have held the key of the League. The popularity of the show also helps to inject more finance to the game from the outer world as well. The Premier League is on the verge to become Money League as it produces more money for everyone including to the event such as organizers, clubs, players, advertisers and the local businesses. Inspiration from the centre has helped to keep on improving the situation. The financial support has helped enormously to present the event in a special way to attract more viewers. One of the major plus point from the league is the promotion of the game of football. The money associates with the sports have certainly its own impact to increase the tendency of young people to become a footballer. This is very vital as far as football has concerned.
Most importantly the fame and the money associated with the game can actually bring corruption. So that should be taken under consideration by the governing body of Premier League. FA and FIFA should keep an eye on this prospect as well. Besides, the money should not be allowed to overtake the purity of the game. Each and every match should be played by high spirit as it has been played throughout the years. Apart from that the support Premier League has got in the internet community can be appreciated hugely. It has certainly provided a good platform for the Premier League to be made it more popular by controlling minds towards the game. Eventually the spot light should be focused on the clubs of the league in order to identify the possibilities associated with them. Increasing the spending capacity on player recruitment has started more competition among the big clubs to get more match winning players under their shed. The process is certainly helpful for the players prospective as it gives them huge chance to get more money and more fame. By involving more star footballers in Premier Leagues clubs have certainly played an important part to catch more attention from the viewers as supporters will prefer to see the star players game more often than not. Overall the paper is certainly opened up the possibilities associated with the Premier League. Through all the analysis of the findings it can be well established now that Premier League is a well maintained corporate sports event in Europe and it is full of chances to acquire more and more audience outside Europe as well. The clubs and the associations associated with the mega event have produced a number of opportunities to make it a huge success all over the globe can be rest assured.

Conclusion

This study is conducted to analysis the future of Premier league outside Europe. It has been found through research that Premier League has a huge popularity inside and outside Europe. Many football playing nations as well as non football playing nations supports the growth of the Premier league that has become a huge centre of attraction for the investors. It is a source of high income for the investors investing in the league because of its growing demand in the market outside Europe. IT has been seen that many American countries have supported the Premier League idea and has built up their own domestic clubs for the growth of this Premier league in their nation. It can be seen through research that the demand for premier league is at its height for the prospect of high rate of return in this field.
Football in forms of Premier league has just become a business for many people because of high income from the advertisers and media. People all over the world support and like this game which has led to the increasing popularity of the game all across the globe and due to this the growth of premier league is at its height at this point of time. There are many football playing nations that does not have there on premier league clubs but want to develop new clubs and invest in this business because of its high demand in the market. If views of general public are considered, football is a good and most entertaining game to view for passing free time and changing the mood of the people in their daily hectic life. This is the reason for the growing demand of the game in this market. Along with the demand for watching the matches the economical prospect of the league also supports its growth. Therefore it can be seen that Football Premier League has a bright future outside Europe.
Along with the growth it has been observed that the fame and money associated with the game has brought corruption that has led to difficulties in organizing a good and pure game. These issues must be considered by the football authorities has it must be seen that money should not take over the purity of the game. Premier leagues outside Europe have changed the views of the game and it will definitely have a bright future due to its growth prospects and increasing demands.

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Appendices
Appendix A: Gantt chart showing the time constraint of the research