PREMIER LEAGUE
A History in Ten Matches
Jim White
Head of Zeus (distributed by Penguin India); 394 pages; Rs 1,199
A football fan scanning the list of matches in this book may initially find Jim White's selection odd. Leeds versus Charlton Athletic in 2004 - seriously? What's with Portsmouth versus Reading in 2007? Anyone remember Queen's Park Rangers versus Stoke in 2013? Start reading and it becomes clear that Mr White has been faithful to the subtitle. This is not a "best of" compilation, though some of these matches were classics. It is a sporting history written in a strikingly original way. Each of the 10 matches highlights some element of or turning point in the history of a tournament that completes its 21st year this year and has done more than any other to popularise football around the world.
The Premier League embodies the globalisation of the sports business, thanks to the digital age - Indians fans watched the same games with the rest of the world long before they got to see Homeland and Castle at the same time as America. It also reflects a level of commercialisation in the sports business that the Americans had discovered long ago within their continent-sized country. Mr White puts it in perspective in the Introduction. In 1964, he writes, BBC paid the Football League £5,000 for the right to screen highlights of its matches. In 1992, the year the league began with 22 teams (now 20), the broadcasting contracts were worth £52 million. In 2012, the three-year domestic deal alone was worth £3 billion.
That and the flood of cash from owners and sponsors changed the nature of the United Kingdom's best-known export in hundreds of ways - from the nature of ownership (Russian, American, Icelandic, Thai, West Asian), fan composition at the stadiums, foreign talent on display to the products on the advertising hoardings, sponsorship on team jerseys and the luxurious lifestyles of the footballers - and Mr White captures all the action vividly.
His account of the sumptuous hospitality at the Mancunian Suite at Etihad Stadium during the Manchester Derby (Manchester City versus Manchester United) a year ago this month is a good start. He's eating a meal worthy of a Masterchef kitchen and sipping wine in reclining seats as he watches United beat their crosstown rivals by 3-2 from goals by Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie, the latter two minutes into extra time, the period that fans know well as "Fergie Time". "What a contrast … the Mancunian Suite offered to my early experiences of watching football. Back then, when I was initiated into its rhythms you'd count yourself lucky if you were only hit by a meat pie". In short, the Premier League suddenly made football, long despised as a yob's game by a certain kind of middle-class stalwart, trendy (for more on this read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch).
Inevitably, the combination of global money and world-class talent in the league created a unique culture - sexy, exciting and with its own folklore and drama. Fergie Time, for example. It is named for Alex Ferguson, Manchester United's recently retired boss who won the title an astounding 13 times. It has its origins in United's 2-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday on April 10, 1993, when United won in the sixth minute of seven minutes of added time. "On so many occasions subsequently did United come to find rescue or victory in added time that a theory developed that posits extra minutes are added when they most need them," Mr White writes. "This strange distorting of the space-time continuum is prompted by Ferguson's insistent dumb show on the touch line, pointing vigorously at his watch." Indeed, United fans are unlikely to forget the role Fergie Time played in 1999, the year the team won the Treble (FA Cup, Premier League and UEFA Champions' League).
The match, described in pulsating, action-filled prose, is only part of the chapter. Mr White builds around the match the early years of the tournament, then known as the FA Carling Premiership. 1993, he reminds us, was the year VAT was introduced in the UK, Fermat's Last Theorem was solved and the Princess of Wales initiated divorced proceedings against her husband. The League's broadcasting rights had just been bankrolled by a brash media baron called Rupert Murdoch, who quickly saw how the "love of football could be monetised" (because fans, unlike consumers, tend to desert the club even if it is relegated).
My favourite account is of the 1-1 draw between Crystal Palace and Manchester United in January 1995, a match better remembered for an off-the-pitch incident. This was when Eric Cantona, red-carded from the field, kicked an abusive Crystal Palace supporter in the chest - and instantly became a hero. Nike put out an ad based on the incident and a notably unrepentant Cantona, one of the most gifted footballers in the League, told an FA enquiry board that he apologised to everyone, including "the prostitute who shared my bed last night". Some officials chose to hear that as him wanting to "prostrate himself before the FA". It was the first intimation of the Premier League's value beyond the pitch.
Together with some great photographs, this is a collector's item. Mr White's lively telling and deep knowledge allow him to capture the essence of the Premier League with each match. Thus, we get to read about the really bad business decisions that finished clubs like Leeds, Portsmouth and Blackburn Rovers, the dodgy owners that tested the "fit and proper persons" clause, the entry of foreign money into Chelsea (Roman Abramovich) and Manchester City (Sheikh Mansour) that powered them to the title after decades of drought. There's drama all the way plus some terrific football. Many claim Spain's La Liga is a close contender for producing great football. True, but as long as the financial structure stays skewed so that the lion's share of broadcasting fees goes to Barcelona and Real Madrid, the Premier League, where the spoils are equally divided among the clubs, is likely to attract the serious money and top the entertainment stakes for a long time to come.
