by J Mock

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: October 01, 2010

The highest tier of the English football (soccer) league system, the Premiership, has continually expanded in popularity since the inaugural season in 1992/93. What the Premiership now represents is the highest viewed and financially lucrative league in the world, surpassing that of the once dominant European leagues of Spain and Italy.

Having separated itself from the original English 'football league', which was a unanimous decision by the then member clubs of the First Division, the Premiership was able to negotiate its own commercial sponsorship.

To understand the growth of the Premiership one only needs to examine the television rights for the Premier League from its conception, to the present day.

In 1992, the first television deal with Sky was valued at 191 million GBP, over five years. The current television package is worth a combined value of 1.7 billion GBP for the 2010 - 2013 season.

Add into this the overseas television rights for the 2007 to 2010 seasons, worth 625 million GBP, and the current league sponsorship deal by Barclays for a fee of 65 million GBP until 2010 and it is clearly evident as to the financial revenues that befall the Premier League.

Richard Scudamore was quoted by the BBC on Friday 6th February 2009 as stating that "The Premier League is a fantastic competition and the continued investment in playing talent and facilities made by the clubs is largely down to the revenue generated through the sale of our broadcast rights,"

The increased revenue, shared between the member clubs of the Barclays Premier League has allowed for the acquisition of the leading players and personal from around the world, for sums in excess of 30 million GBP, and for a select group of players to be paid in excess of 100,000 GBP per week.

Over the 18 year history of the Premier League players of the quality of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Gianfranco Zola, Alan Shearer, Dwight Yorke, Eric Cantona, Roberto Di Matteo, Vialli, Bergkamp and Ian Wright have graced the limelight, and the trend continues today with leading players, of the likes of Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, Steven Gerrard and Van Persie

The combination of the leading players and the leading coaches from around the world, in Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Scolari, and Mourinho, past and present, has seen the Premier League become 'the best league in the world' with an estimated global audience of 1billion.

To compete with the best, you need to play with and against the best, and as the stature of the Premier league increased, so did the ability to attract the foreign players, and the number of viewers who want to watch them compete for domestic and European honours. The popularity of the Premier League is based upon the two key elements of financial wealth and the ability for the twenty member football clubs present to each field eleven plus players of outstanding ability and quality.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7875478.stm

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