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    • Apr 22
    • 5 min read

Americans are coming





Is American influence on the Premier League a bad thing?


 


You are standing in the terraces. A chorus of ‘Defence, defence, defence’ rings out across the stadium as your team faces another attack. You look across to your left and see the guy standing next to you with his hand in a box of popcorn. To your left one is eating a corndog. There isn’t a pie in sight. American flags hang all around.  

  

Popcorn mightn’t be the worst addition. But the rest we don’t need. 

The point is – English football is great. And full-scale Americanization of our beautiful game would make it decidedly less great. But the fear of Americans that is rife within the football community, while sometimes justified (nobody wants to hear that defence chant in football), is not always necessary.  

  

In September 2022 – Gary Neville tweeted his concern about the increasing presence of US owners in English football. He insisted that ‘they just don’t get it and think differently’.  

 

But is that such a bad thing?  

 

Yes. And no.  

 

 

The European Super League was a nightmare turned reality for the few days that the proposal survived. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all have American shareholders and all of those teams made the decision to join the ESL. Any trust that had been built was severely eroded – and a fundamental lack of understanding about what is so wonderful about English football was demonstrated.  

 

While the rational reaction is to accept that the decision to join the Super League was more to do with making money (owners not hailing from the USA made the same decision) - asking someone to be rational about something they love deeply is difficult at the best of times. Asking a football fan to be rational about his beloved club is probably even harder.  

 

 

Fear of outsiders is natural. Throw in the age-old Brit vs Yank narrative and that fear naturally multiplies.  

 

  

But can we also learn from the American way of doing things? Can we make use of the fact that they ‘don’t get it’ and that they ‘think differently’?  Corndogs aside, a fresh perspective on the Premier League and EFL could be beneficial if we put the apprehension aside and listened.  

 

 

  

Those who follow the Premier League, Arsenal or Chelsea’s social media channels would have seen that last month Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame. This put him in esteemed company, joining names like Sir Alex Ferguson, Thierry Henry, and Frank Lampard. The announcement came with a photo of him holding a hall of fame medal, a few photos of him playing for Arsenal and Chelsea, and then a seven minute interview. Within this interview there are interviews with those who have played with and managed him, clips of his playing days and successful moments – all while Cole speaks about his life and career and thanks those who he feels he needs to. On the whole – a nice video. Arsene Wenger makes a surprise appearance. Sol Campbell too. It’s very nice.  

 

  

But, for an award that the Premier League considers its highest honour, it’s all very ‘meh’ isn’t it? An edited video in a generic studio with some clips that we’ve mostly all seen before. This is not some youngster doing an interview about his debut or even a player reflecting on a successful season. 

It’s the Hall of Fame.  

  

An uninitiated American sports fan could be forgiven for thinking Ashley Cole wasn’t a player of real note. They could be forgiven for thinking he isn’t perhaps the greatest ever left back England has produced, and one who remained in his country’s top league throughout his prime years.  

 

 

  

The reason they could be forgiven for this is that they’re used to better. Hall of Fame inductions across the pond come with all the bells and all the whistles. NBA HOF ceremonies are broadcast live on television where players accept their induction with a heartfelt speech in front of their friends, family, and peers. These ceremonies have seen Michael Jordan cry as he thanked teammate Scottie Pippen for the role he played in building his legacy; Allen Iverson telling his wife that she was the best of him, and that she should walk around knowing she’s a hall of famer; and Dennis Rodman’s profoundly emotional speech where he pulls back his eccentric veil to speak vulnerably about growing up in poverty and facing homelessness. Seminal moments in American sporting culture – moments that humanize these athletes and only further their brilliance in the fans’ eyes.  

 

 

 

Not only just entities that exist in highlights and edited videos. Men and women they can watch, in full, speak in front of colleagues and those they love in an environment where real raw emotion can’t be edited.  

 

 

  

These are the moments we crave as sports fans. It’s what American sports have been getting so right for so long. Instead, English football fans are forced to drool over clips of Jack Grealish nailing pints of beer in celebration of a trophy – so starved of the chance to see their personalities that this is noteworthy for us.    

 

 

 

What is perhaps the greatest shame about the lack of personal coverage around professional footballers is that the way that hunger is satiated instead through negative media. Sex scandals are plastered all over the tabloids, drunk driving reports are endless, videos of players in bars incessant. While attitudes are gradually changing – the progress is slow. The days of the Daily Mail turning non-stories like an up-and-coming professional buying an expensive house into criticism over ‘having never started a Premier League match’* are perhaps over, but scandal relating to football players is never far from the headlines – and a lack of context through more personal coverage only deepens the hunger in the media for this negative coverage. As we saw when Dele Alli opened up about his mental health, addiction struggles, and traumatic childhood – the clamour for negative coverage concerning him quickly dried up. When these people are human to us, the interest in the parts of their lives that they’d prefer not to be in the public eye starts to feel seedy, grotesque even, and the value in reporting these parts declines in step with the decreasing interest.  

 

 

The charge towards more rounded coverage is well on its way. VERSUS is a news platform which has been set up in direct opposition to the tabloids and has seen this decision rewarded. Their fresh style of news writing and social media activity has captured the hearts and minds of their readers, amassing 219k Instagram followers since their founding in 2017. Platforms like Rio Ferdinand’s ‘Five’ are also thriving. On YouTube they’ve amassed over one million subscribers and are showing no sign of slowing. YouTube channel ‘Filthy Fellas’ continues to pull in large viewership and frequently has current and ex-players appear as guests, recently hosting former Everton and Crystal Palace player Yannick Bolasie. Under The Cosh is another one, a podcast hosted by former players John Parkin, Chris Brown and writer Chris Brown, where ex-players come on and tell stories from their football days.  These platforms allow for a more personal relationship between athlete and viewer - encouraging more understanding and empathy in what can often be a tumultuous affair.

 

 

While everybody else races to satisfy the developing appetites of football fans - the Premier League is dragging it’s feet.  

 

There is work to be done. Looking across the pond is not always a bad thing. Improved fan engagement will only make the Premier League and the clubs that play in it more money in the long run. The brand will continue to grow regardless, but as the trend of clubs becoming increasingly estranged from their core group of supporters continues – giving these supporters the chance to feel close to their favourite players can only be a good thing.  

 

  

We don’t need corn dogs, or even an All-Star game. Give us a Hall of Fame that comes with all the bells and whistles it deserves. Let us get to know our favourite players in a more personal way. Then we’ll be happy. At least for now. 

 

 

 

 

 

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