How England’s football league is breaking the sport

And why the rest of Europe can’t keep up

Since 1992, the English Premier League has enjoyed some of the most remarkable growth in sports history. Today, its clubs collectively generate more than Є6.5 billion in revenue each year. But Europe’s other leagues make far less, and their disadvantage is starting to make the sport less competitive.

Welcome to Search Party!
Search Party is a new, independent, video news show that combines experienced journalism and visual design to decode the most complex stories in international sports and geopolitics.

About:
Search Party is led and produced by Sam Ellis, a journalist, director, editor, and animator based in New York City. For more than 6 years, Ellis produced the hugely popular video series, Vox Atlas, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. He specializes in breaking down the most complex new stories and presenting them with a refreshing, accessible, and engaging visual style.

He’s produced explainers on some of the world’s thorniest geopolitical stories; from corruption scandals in Latin America, conflict in the Middle East, and the rise of China, to the world of sports; the Monaco Grand Prix, the FIFA corruption scandal, and the 100-foot waves of Nazaré, Portugal. Ellis has also directed multiple episodes of TV; notably on Netflix’s ‘Explained’ and HBO Sport’s ‘Level PLaying Field’.

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[siroswaldfortitude]

I'm English, and believe me, most fans here think it has gone too far as well. Man Citeh have 115 charges against them for cheating, Chelsea buy anything that can run, and some owners are draining the clubs dry. Meanwhile its now expensive for the working classes to go to the matches, football shirts cost a fortune, and television subscriptions are expensive. If Uefa and FIFA were not so corrupt, they would be able to deal with this.

[johnnyharris]

And just like that I’m interested in Sports! (Sam’s got lots more stories like this in the works)

[JCNL]

Leagues from smaller countries like The Netherlands, Portugal etc have been struggling with this for years. But now the power imbalance is even affecting the other top four leagues. The power imbalance has slowly been ruining football for the past 25 years or so

[Djiehh]

Two facts that I feel are missing from the video to add some context: The fact that fewer countries are represented in late rounds of the Champions League is massively influenced by the fact that until the mid-90s, every country was only able to send a single club to the competition, whereas now up to four clubs from the top countries can qualify in parallel.

Also, the Premier League always had the built-in advantage of being the one top competition that was from an English-speaking country. English is the most universal language today, and while there are lots of people who speak Spanish and quite a few who speak French, they tend to have their own native leagues to watch, whereas people from Asia and North America (except for Mexico) would find it most convenient to watch PL football in the original English presentation as opposed to German, French, Spanish or Italian football.

[ohthatswhygo]

As someone from Sheffield (who lives just down the road from Hillsborough Stadium) it's really impressive how you're able to take so many big topics around English Football and it's history and apply the deserved nuance to them - all whilst keeping the video to less than 15 minutes! Looking forward to future vids already.

[CleoAbram]

IMMEDIATELY became a member. This channel is amazing, and it's just the beginning. Congratulations Sam!

[chrismason]

As an English Chelsea supporter who grew up during this period of the last 20 years, I can really relate to this story. My grandad tried to warn me that all this money was dangerous to the sport when I was an excited kid who wanted his team to win. Turns out he was right. Well done.

[leila]

In many African countries, the Premier League is HUGE. In the most remote areas people pay a small fee to watch the games on large screens, it’s rare to go a day without seeing someone wearing some jersey, every kid dreams of becoming a professional footballer, small talk is arguing about coaches and teams, highlights of big games are discussed during local news… I mean it’s EVERYWHERE. As a kid, I always thought the names of the clubs were just random names—imagine my shock when I grew up and realized they were actually English cities!

Long story short — the TV broadcasting has made the league international. It’s my league as much as any English man. Great vid.

[alej.]

It was mentioned in this but I think Barcelona’s complete mismanagement and all the financial levers they’d had to pull to even finance a new stadium and win LaLiga this season deserves it’s own video. Always enjoy new sports channel like this on YouTube!

[michaeljames]

Well done, I love the format! As a Canadian and avid Hockey fan, Id love a story done about why no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since Montreal did in 1993.

[luis.fcaldeira]

You didnt cover one key matter: the Bosman Law, which allowed european clubs to sign any number of players from EU as they want, instead of a fixed number of foreign players like before. That is when football actually started breaking, with rich clubs concentrating all the best players, marginalizing teams like Ajax, Red Star and south americans (with were as good or better than the best european teams), basically turning them into "player exporters", instead of the final destination

[tnductai]

you missed one of the key points on how the broadcast right is so expensive now: EPL did so well in promoting their league in asia, especially south east asia, by offering them a cheap package back in the 2000s.

[nostalgeomusic]

Good stuff! As a European, I'm fascinated by how big college sports are in the US. The size of the stadiums, the facilities, the fanbases are mind blowing. But there's also the business side of it and how players can't earn money whilst being a student athlete. Would love to see a video about this 😄

[charlesnd-]

This channel is what we’ve all been hoping for…

[mesicek]

1:04 Was the other way around in the 90s
Italian clubs were spending crazy amounts of money, breaking transfer records almost every few seasons.

[liamduffy]

Love the video as an EPL fan from Liverpool! Just a quick note, 97 fans perished at Hillsborough in 1989. A man suffered life altering injuries that ultimately lead to his death a few years back. This is something we in Liverpool never forget and always respect, no matter who's teams colours you wear

[knosse]

As a football fan from Hannover, Germany, I'm just so glad the Bundesliga didn't make the same mistake of letting in huge investors (yet...). Even though we might lose out to big money and fall short of premier league clubs, we still have what football is ment to be: A sport owned by the fans.
Down to the third division, we have some of the most passionate fans in europe. German clubs who are largely owned by investors or corporations are hated by almost all german football fans. Big investors are ruining our sport and most people in Germany feel that way. I know it might seem irrational at first, but really football means more to us than just winning. It's hard to explain, but football is a part of our culture and we won't let investors take it away from us.

[richardayton]

As an English football fan, I can say honestly that most people in this country hate the money that has ruined our game. Outside of the top few clubs, unless some nation state comes in and throws billions at the club, you know that you can't ever really compete. Leicester City were a once in a generation exception and even they have been relegated, as they just couldn't afford to keep competing at that level. Clubs being relegated from the Premier League used to be the most likely to come back up. Now they can sink right through the leagues and go bust as the income is so much less. People have started turning to non-league and lower league football as it's more competitive.

[Posting]

Great first episode! As for sports here are some potential topics:

1. The Saudi take over of golf
2. Doping in Track and Field
3. The conflict between the NBA and the Big 3 league (Ice Cube has accused the NBA of trying to stop the BIG 3 league).
4. The business of NCAA sports and their recruiting
5. The NBA and China
6. How the Saudis are trying to take over Tennis.

[ccityplanner]

0:07: You have Chelsea's location incorrect on the map. It is 1 mile to the east of Fulham, which is in the correct positron.