This Monday, August 15 the Premier League celebrates its 30th anniversary, three decades in which it has become a leading sports product worldwide and which arouses passions. In 1992, the ‘top’ club in England broke 104 years of tradition and left the Football League to create the Super League with its own revenue, without sharing it with the four divisions of professional football.
The project became a reality because it was supported by the English Football Association, which many of the smaller teams considered a betrayal, and by television channels. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television then acquired the rights.
“I don’t think we know what the Premier will be like.“, said Teddy Sheringham, who scored the first televised goal in the league for Nottingham Forest against Liverpool (1-0). “It’s something new, very exciting times,” added Sheringham.
The first day of the first Premier
Arsenal-Norwich 2-4
Chelsea 1-1 Oldham
Coventry 2-1 Middlesbrough
Crystal Palace 3-3 Blackburn
Everton 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Ipswich 1-1 Aston Villa
Leeds 2-1 Wimbledon
Sheffield United-Manchester United 2-1
Southampton 0-0 Tottenham
Nottingham Forest-Liverpool 1-0
Manchester City-QPR 1-1
Revenue from television rights has enabled Premier clubs to attract top players from around the world, leading to ever-increasing interest in the competition.
The first weekend of the Premier only had 13 players from outside the British Isles. In the following 30 years, footballers from 120 countries have appeared in the Premier League and last season 63 nationalities were represented.
Today Premier is broadcast to 800 million homes in 188 countries, with 90 TV companies and 400 channels broadcasting matches. The Premier and its clubs have almost a billion followers on social networks. The Premier expects to generate, in terms of overseas TV rights, 6.3 billion euros over the next three seasons.
There have been 50 teams that have played in the Premier, but only seven have managed to win it, with Blackburn Rovers and Leicester being the only ones not from the big cities. Manchester United won the first and dominated the early years (He won seven of the first nine titles under Sir Alex Ferguson). Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal achieved those in 1998, 2002 and 2004.
José Mourinho’s Chelsea, a club then owned by Roman Abramovich, took over the 2005 and 2006before United’s dominance returned, with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have won four of the last five editions, interrupted in 2019-20 by Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool (the only Premier of the ‘reds’).
From the mythical Invincibles of Wenger’s Arsenal (2003-04) to Kun Agüero’s goal that crowned Roberto Mancini’s City champions on the final day of 2011-12, the epic made the Premier great and even more popular.
Source: La Verdad
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