Back in 1992 clubs in the top division in England did something unprecedented; they broke away from the long established English Football League (founded in 1888). They formed the Premiership (now known as the Premier League) their reasons, well quite simply they wanted more money from TV rights and the EFL, who for a long time held back English Football were not willing to do so. The English Leagues, the oldest in the world had suffered in the back end of the 1980’s, partially due to the fact that they were banned from European Competitions following the dreadful Heysel disaster that tragically claimed 39 lives and injured hundreds more, after Liverpool fans decided to charge Juventus fans, for reasons unknown, this was a disgraceful day for Football and something that should never have been repeated again. Another disaster at Hillsborough where 97 people died and 766 people were badly injured, after failures from the Police led to overcrowding in a small section of Hillsborough ground and further poor actions from Police on the day made this another dark day for English Football.
Hooliganism in football was rife across Europe and beyond, but English football at the time were seen as the main architects of the unnecessary, mindless violence that were common place in the game from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s incidents like the Valley Parade fire on 11th May 1985 that cost 56 lives and the tragic death of Ian Hambridge a 15 year old Leed United Fan who was attending his first ever game at St Andrews (home of my beloved Birmingham City) following clashes between Birmingham’s Zulu Army and Leeds Service Crew (the names of the hooligan firms) on the very same afternoon as the Bradford City fire, shows how much of a dark place the English game was in at the time. No football fan should ever go to a game to watch their team and never return.
Fast forward to 1992 and English teams have re-entered and won European competitions (Manchester United beat Barcelona in the now defunct Cup Winners Cup in the very first season English teams returned), but the league was shell of its former self, in the 15 years before English teams had been banned an English Club had won the European Cup (now the Champions League) a staggering 8 times and had two losing finalists in Leeds United and the aforementioned Liverpool in the tragic Heysel game. Teams like Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Aston Villa had all lifted the biggest prize in European football in the late 70’s and early 80’s, a feat not then achieved until Manchester United defeated Bayern Munich in the 1999 final a full 15 years after Liverpool had won the illustrious competition and then factor in English Clubs like Ipswich, Tottenham and Liverpool winning the UEFA Cup, including the very first edition containing two sides from England’s top division (Tottenham and Wolverhampton Wanderers) and even teams like West Ham, Everton, Chelsea and Manchester City emerging victorious in the Cup Winners Cup, the English League was one of, if not the top league in Europe. Back to 1992, the league had suffered from the lack of European competitions, some of the biggest names in English football played in Italy, Spain and France, the standard of the football was not the same as it was in the early to mid 80’s, attendances had dwindled and going to watch teams became increasingly difficult due to the hooliganism still rife amongst the fans, families looked to do something else with their weekend, potentially stalling the growth of future fans.
Enter Sky Sports, a subscription channel owned and operated by BSKYB who were owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Sky bought the rights to show the Premier League whilst established channels like BBC continued to host it’s flagship Match of the Day highlights package and ITV continued their deal with the EFL. From that moment the Premiership began to change but it’s first initial season wasn’t good reading in Europe, Manchester United won their first Championship in 26 years, but in Europe they faltered losing on penalties to Torpedo Moscow in the UEFA Cup, Leeds United (the last winners of the football league top division) were defeated in the second round of the European Cup by Glasgow Rangers and Liverpool were completely obliterated by Spartak Moscow 8-2 over two legs in the second round of the Cup Winners Cup. Not the most promising start to this new era of English top flight football. Sky’s injection of cash into the TV rights was the catalyst for change for the Premier League, Serie A in Italy was seen as the biggest and best league in Europe followed by La Liga in Spain in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, and huge clubs like Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax had all began to achieve success in Europe’s biggest competition.
Manchester United were the big winners of the early Premier League and began to bring in big names from across Europe and South America whilst developing superstars of their own in Beckham, Scholes and Ryan Giggs. Arsenal who had become the main challengers to United brought Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Nicholas Anelka and Theirry Henry to the fledgling league, players of world class calibre were beginning to see the Premier League as a top destination to ply their trade. Newcastle and Blackburn, United’s other early challengers had injected some cash into the league Blackburn even going onto win the title with players like Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton; who cost a record fee for the league at the time, a record that wouldn’t stand for a long time. Newcastle themselves then signed hometown hero Shearer for another record £15 million a few years later, the money was proving a key factor in players now wanting to stay in the league, and players wanting to arrive, like Faustino Asprilla.
The turn of the Millennium was a key time for the Premier League, whilst it trailed in quality and prestige to Italy in particular the standard of football was increasing ten fold, and it wouldn’t be long before the Premier League became what it is today. Arsenal and Manchester United traded titles in the late 90’s early 2000’s and players like Juan Sebastian Veron, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Jaap Stam arrived to United as they tried to build upon their early success, but it was the strength of the teams in the rest of the league (something that makes it the most competitive league in Europe) that was really beginning to take shape, Edwin Van Der Sar, one of the world’s best goalkeepers, arrived at newly promoted Fulham, Chelsea began to sign players like Marcel Desailly, Gianfranco Zola and Gianluca Vialli, Middlesbrough signed Juninho, Emerson and Ravanelli. The league was flourishing and then came Roman Abramovich, Roman had an opportunity to buy a few clubs in England, Liverpool and Spurs were heavily linked. On the final day of the season Chelsea played Liverpool in a straight shootout to get into the next seasons Champions League and it was said whoever won that game Abramovich would buy (this is just a rumour, whether or not this is true is anyone’s guess). Chelsea won the game and Abramovich took the reigns, and immediately began to play his own version of Football Manager on cheat mode, Hernan Crespo arrived from Italy, Claude Makelele (a player so good, he had a position named after him) arrived from Real Madrid, standout youngsters like Joe Cole decided to move across London and ply his trade at Stamford Bridge, United and Arsenal now had a real threat to their dominance. Arsenal were by far and away the best team at this point, they went 49 games undefeated across two seasons, winning the league in the process with an invincible season in the bag. The threat from Chelsea was looming and then came José Mourinho, the special one, the man who really set the premier league in motion with his Chelsea side, United and Arsenal no longer had threats, they had real issues, Mourinho set out to buy players that would take Chelsea to the next level, Drogba was his main signing as well as a raft of Porto players from his Champions League winning team joined and suddenly the Premier League had more superstars.
The reason I have put that in there is one of the Premier League’s biggest issues is that world superstars generally choose to play in Spain for Barcelona and Real Madrid, in Germany for Bayern, or at Juventus, Milan or Inter. Even now at PSG players who are deemed world class will often join the French giants than ply their trade. Ronaldinho was on his way to Man United before Barcelona swooped in and took him from PSG, the world’s best player Harry Kane (Ballon D’or winner 2026) left the Premier League for the Bundesliga and took his game to new heights, Mbappé went to Real Madrid despite Liverpool’s greatest efforts. Is it the style of the Premier League (fast and powerful play over technical brilliance) that puts players off coming to England? Look at the Premier League over the past 20 years (the golden years if you will), how many truly world class players have hit these shores? Cristiano Ronaldo arrived as an 18 year old with raw talent and was developed into a World Class performer before leaving to Real Madrid, Eden Hazard (for me not world class but that’s just an opinion) honed his craft at Chelsea and then went and flopped at Real. Sergio Aguero (for me someone who never got the love he should have in England) went to Barcelona after years of being underappreciated by the English press. Thierry Henry, probably the greatest Premier League footballer ever had to go to Barcelona to achieve his dream of winning a Champions League.
If I was to list them over the 34 years that the Premier League has existed it would be this (in no particular order); Zola, Bergkamp, Shearer, Henry, Van Nistelrooy, Haaland, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lampard, Gerrard, Vieira, Ashley Cole and Salah. Currently only Haaland stands as truly world class in the premier league, there are some honourable mentions Van Dijk, who was quality but comparisons to Maldini and Cannavaro made me laugh, a lot. Declan Rice, potentially but would he succeed elsewhere and would any of Europe’s giants sign him currently? Cole Palmer, a player who has to manage his game time, wouldn’t get into Europe’s top clubs at this point, he doesn’t get into England’s squad over Jude Bellingham (who is world class). Bruno Fernandes? A talented player who has a knack of just simply moaning when it doesn’t go right. The league needs star’s but then again it always has.
The Premier League is the strongest league in Europe, however it doesn’t have the strongest clubs at the top table, Manchester United are no longer the powerhouse they once were, Arsenal are re-emerging but aren’t quite at the top, top level. Chelsea are the same, they are rebuilding and Liverpool the same. The money in the Premier League will keep it strong, teams like Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton will keep it competitive, teams like Crystal Palace, West Ham and Aston Villa’s success in the secondary European competitions shows the depth of the league itself, but Europe is restacking it’s leagues, La Liga is as good as ever, how long will the Premier League remain at the top? Who knows.