Who owns England's game? American professional sporting influences and foreign ownership in the Premier League

Abstract

Changes to the organization of, and commercialism in, the Barclay's Premier League in England have made clubs attractive to international investors. Recently, in particular, there has been a rapid increase in American ownership of Premier League teams with Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United owned by Americans and a large minority shareholder at Arsenal is American. Beyond directorship/ownership issues, North American organizational and marketing structures of professional sport have increased their influence within the Premier League. These include a focus on diverse revenue streams including media rights, luxury seating, commodification and branding of clubs and their heritage, and diversified services as well as differing patterns of club ownership and administration. Although these have merged with English traditions within professional football, there is no doubt that North American influences have begun to change the nature of marketing within the game and have also made leading English clubs attractive to North American and other international investors. The result of the increasing ‘Americanization’ of English professional football (soccer) marketing and management strategies has clashed with English traditions of organization as well as supporters' consumption of the game itself.

Notes

1. BBC Sport, ‘US Pair Agree to Liverpool Takeover’.

2. These clubs were Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester City. For a brief discussion of Earl's and other investments in the Premier League, see Mackenzie, ‘Football Takeover Trends’.

3. For a recent discussion of this in relation to major professional sports leagues and NASCAR, see Brown, ‘Exceptionalist America’, 1106–35.

4. Ammirante, ‘Globalization in Professional Sport’, 237–61.

5. Giulianotti, Football, 87.

6. Duke, ‘Local Tradition Versus Globalization’, 13.

7. Ammirante, ‘Globalization in Professional Sport’, 243.

8. New York Yankees and New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels in MLB; New York Giants and New York Jets in the NFL; New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets, and Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA; New York Rangers and New York Islanders in the NHL. In MLB and the NFL the teams play in different leagues/conferences.

9. For an excellent discussion of this phenomenon, see Rosentraub, Major League Losers.

10. Rosentraub, ‘Private Control of a Civic Asset’, 109.

11. In this assumption we exclude minor league baseball teams, which, while they are professional, are subsidiaries of Major League Baseball teams.

12. Mackenzie, ‘Football Takeover Trends’.

13. Giulianotti, Football: A Sociology of the Global Game, 99.

14. See Brown, ‘Exceptionalist America’.

15. For discussions of this phenomenon, see Burton, ‘Does the National Football League's Current Economic Model Threaten the Long Term Growth of Professional Football Globally?’, 5–17; Means and Nauright, ‘Going Global’, 40–50.

16. Duffy, ‘Football May be Ill, but Don't Blame Bosman’, 277–89.

17. See Ammirante, ‘Globalization in Professional Sport’; Bonn, ‘Premiership Shares 900m TV Windfall’.

18. For further discussion of this, see Rosentraub, ‘Playing with the Big Boys’, 143–62.

19. McArdle, ‘They're Playing R. Song’.

20. Ibid.

21. Duffy, ‘Football May Be Ill, but Don't Blame Bosman’.

22. Hamil, ‘Manchester United’, 114–34.

23. Wulzinger, ‘The Great Foreign Takeover’.

24. Ammirante, ‘Globalization in Professional Sport’, 244.

25. Payout figures sourced at UEFA.com in March 2007: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=16384/newsid=559777.html.

26. Gauge and Maindment, ‘The Most Valuable Soccer Teams’.

27. Holmes, ‘Stan Kroenke Targets Arsenal’.

28. BBC News, ‘Foreign Cash Can Boost Arsenal’.

29. Villa Backers Club Formed (2006). http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=5656. Accessed February 12, 2008.

30. Moore, ‘Aston Villa's Future’.

31. In Scotland the League Championship has been an exclusive competition between the two giant clubs of Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers while in the Netherlands, only PSV Eindhoven, Ajax and Feyenoord have won championships during the past quarter century. An examination of the Premier League suggests that there has been less competitive balance than before its formation.

32. Quirk and Fort, ‘Hard Ball’, 9.

33. Rosentraub, ‘Private Control of a Civic Asset’, 109.

34. Duke, ‘Local Tradition Versus Globalization’, 5.

35. Ibid.

36. The best discussion of this is still Tony Mason's account in Association Football and English Society 1863–1914.

37. Duke, ‘Local Tradition Versus Globalization’, 13.

38. Hamil, ‘Manchester United’, 128.

39. Football Association, Blueprint for the Future of Football, cited in Nauright, ‘Global Games’, 1331.

40. J. Chaffin, ‘No Title’, 21.

41. G. Moore, ‘DIC Aims to Force Liverpool Sale with Final Offer’.

42. Hamil, ‘Manchester United’, 131–2.

43. Ibid., 132.

44. S. Brennan, ‘Put “Fair” Back into Football’.

45. For a full discussion of the campaign, see Edensor and Millington, ‘“This is Our City” 172–93.

46. Wulzinger, ‘The Great Foreign Takeover’.

47. Reuters, ‘Platini Seeks EU Help Over Foreign Owners’.