The ultimate football myth
04:00 in Los Angeles, 19:00 in Beijing, 13:00 in London, fans waiting eagerly for the start of a football game, a game in the best league in the world — or whatever they call it nowadays — 90 minutes of pure excitement that isn’t delivered anywhere else in the world, a mixture of elite footballers and the most passionate atmosphere. The ultimate football myth
If the above clues weren’t enough to guess which league is being mentioned, it’s the English Premier League, probably the most advertised league in the world and probably the most watched throughout the world. These are its only eligible titles.
Leaving the Premier League alone, and moving on to a related point comes a twitter conversation between two of the most respected football journalists out there — unless you are an Arsenal fan hammering Raph for his views on Arsenal next season — Raphael Honigstein and Miguel Delany. To summarize the conversation, it’s a discussion about competitiveness of a league, football teams making the league itself, and which of the two attracts audience the most. Raph argues that teams themselves attract audience, on the other hand Miguel’s point is that competitiveness has a major effect on the amount of people tuning in. An opinion is as harmless as a dove, therefore if you chose either Raph’s side or Miguel’s side it’s up to you. One of Honigstein’s points of argument was branding, and how big teams in England attract audience throughout the world because of their brand. This shifts us back to our main topic, the ultimate football myth.
The Premier League and the clubs making the league, have done a brilliant job in terms of selling their brand to people all over the world since the introduction of The Premier League by Sky Sports. The clubs and the league are instilled in people’s lives whether through Tv, Internet, or merchandise. By doing this it attracted a huge fan base, which was enlarged by the high intensity of football being played, and the familiarity of the English language.
Meanwhile, in the middle of nowhere a 14 year old kid is in tears after his favourite team won their first ever league title. He enjoys watching his national league and following his favourite team. Who Manchester United are going to sign next week isn’t top of his priority list. There exists thousands, if not millions similar to this kid, who are interested in different leagues, some are more competitive than others, while some have lower quality of football than others.
The Premier League is always advertised as the best league in the world, but actually is it the best in the world ? The Senegalese second division might have been more competitive last year, but we wouldn’t know as I doubt anyone actually follows that. So does that make the most competitive league the best one, or is the best league the one with the best teams in the world ? Neither are the best league, nor the one with the best tactical innovation or execution.
The ultimate football myth, is that the best league in the world exists. As the best league in the world is opinion based and not a fact, the difference in preferences is similar to that of your favourite dish, some like pasta while others prefer currywurst. To quote the great Tobi (twitter: @redrobbery) “Twitter is like this huge wankfest where people try to determine which football league has the highest sperm quality”.
