Why the leaderless, shambolic and arrogant Premier League is no longer the best in the world, writes OLIVER HOLT
There was a time when we could say, without much fear of being contradicted, that the Premier League was the best football league in the world. Unless things change, and change fast, it is becoming increasingly obvious that that time is coming to an end.
There is still much that is beautiful about the football our top flight produces. The 1-1 draw between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield last month was a spellbinding display of quite sublime skills from two teams that are among the best on the planet. There have been many other clashes this season that have lifted the soul, too.
But, despite the vast financial advantages our clubs enjoy over their competitors, there are no English sides in the last four of the Champions League, there are no English club sides in the last four of the Europa League and only Aston Villa, who are having such a fine season, have made it to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.
But that is not the main reason for the disquiet about the direction in which our top flight is heading. The problems, in a league that has ceased to be something we can be proud of, run way deeper than one season of under-achievement in European competition.
Can we really be proud of a league where two clubs are owned by repressive nation states, where obscene player wage inflation runs rife, where the league punishes clubs for PSR infringements but where the punishments appear worryingly random, where supporters are asked to pay more and more money for tickets, merchandise and food in return for being treated like an irritating inconvenience?
Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City was a spell-binding display of quite sublime skill
No English teams are left in the Champions League after both Arsenal and Manchester City were knocked out
Aston Villa are the only Premier League side left competing on the continental stage after making the Europa Conference League semi-finals
The Premier League in the spring of 2024 is a leaderless shambles, in thrall to a cabal of dessicated club owners, that is no longer even attempting to disguise the fact that its only guiding principles are how much money it can make and how quickly it can destroy the rest of the English football pyramid.
Its annihilation of FA Cup replays in the early rounds of the competition, announced last week in conjunction with a craven FA, betrayed utter disdain for a feature of our football that has provided so many memorable moments and embedded itself deep in our sporting culture.
The owners of the elite Premier League clubs, who tried to destroy the fabric of our game once already with their pathetically botched attempt to join a European Super League three years ago, are trying to destroy it again, as we always knew they would.
They are just doing it a different way this time. They are trying to be more subtle about it but they are not succeeding. We can see those owners for what they are. We can see their avarice and their disregard for the loyalty of fans who have supported their clubs for decades and are now being treated like trash.
These owners are ratcheting up season ticket prices again and hastening loyal supporters into sad and regretful exile because they cannot afford to go to the game. In their place, they are hoping for more and more tourists to fill those seats and pay more and more money to do so.
And if supporters complain that their places are being taken by fans on weekend trips from Dallas or Melbourne or Seoul or Beijing or New York or Oslo, then they are upbraided by people like Ange Postecoglou for having the temerity to mourn their expulsion from stadiums that have made up so much of a part of their lives.
This is a league where clubs like Nottingham Forest have become so arrogant and thuggish that they react to questionable refereeing decisions against them – there is little doubt that they should have been awarded at least one penalty against Everton on Saturday – by indulging in pathetic and absurd conspiracy theories about who the VAR official supports.
There is little point dignifying Forest’s rabble-rousing with re-hashing the details of it here. But the club knows that by releasing the statement it released on its official X account, it will feed spurious allegations of corruption and increase the possibility that individual referees will be targeted physically by disgruntled supporters.
Fans of Premier League elite clubs protested the attempts to break away and join the European Super League
Last week saw the shock announcement that FA Cup replays were to be scrapped moving forward
Nottingham Forest’s statement will feed spurious allegations of corruption and increase the possibility that individual referees will be targeted
Forest referenced the fact that the VAR for their game with Everton was allegedly a Luton Town supporter in a remarkable statement on X
It is only a matter of time until a referee is assaulted. What Forest did on Sunday has simply brought that moment a lot closer. They will have blood on their hands when it happens. Might is right for these clubs. The concept of accountability or responsibility towards the wider game means nothing to them.
VAR, and more particularly the way it is applied in the Premier League, is a joke. Used properly, it should improve the game. Used the way the top flight is using it, it is spreading even more disillusionment towards the elite division.
We know, too, that Premier League’s ambition of staging league games abroad, an idea that has been a goal since Richard Scudamore floated the idea of a 39th game, is getting closer and closer and that that will signal another symbolic break with the history of football in this country.
At a visceral level, supporting a football club has always been about belonging. It has been about feeling a part of a community and part of a club. If you are a fan of a lower league team, you still get that feeling. In the Premier League, many supporters say it is harder and harder to feel as if you belong. The Premier League is becoming deracinated. It is more and more detached from its roots.
The irony here is that the Premier League was supposed to be desperate to show it could run football in this country responsibly before an independent regulator is ushered in. It has failed in that mission and it has failed spectacularly. The Premier League is not the best league in the world any more. It is not a league we can be proud of any more.
It is in need of rescue and even if the regulator will not be able to fix all its ills, it may at least curb some of the worst of its excesses before it destroys itself. It cannot come soon enough.
Richard Scudamore’s suggestion of a ’39th’ Premier League game to be played abroad would mark a further step away from historic football traditions in this country
The Premier League is no longer something to be proud of, and is no longer the best in the world
Fernandes shows his class
I have not always been the biggest fan of the antics of Bruno Fernandes on the pitch but the behaviour of the Manchester United captain towards the vanquished Coventry City players in the aftermath of their FA Cup semi-final penalty shoot-out on Sunday was pure class.
Instead of sprinting off to celebrate with Rasmus Hojlund, Fernandes and several of his United team-mates, turned to commiserate with the Coventry players. It was a gesture of respect and dignity that has made me think again about Fernandes.
The same, sadly, cannot be said for that fool, Antony. Not content with being one of the biggest transfer busts in United’s history, Antony reacted to the winning penalty by goading Coventry’s players by cupping a hand to his hear as he sprinted past them.
Maybe he had seen the Argentina players doing something similar when they beat Holland at the 2022 World Cup. That wasn’t a pleasant spectacle but at least that Argentina team was packed with serial winners. Antony, sadly, is only famous for his mediocrity.
Bruno Fernandes was quick to commiserate with the vanquished Coventry City at Wembley
While Fernandes showed his class Antony cupped his ears in their direction after winning the shootout
The Brazilian is one of the biggest transfer busts in United’s history and is only famous for his mediocrity
Guardiola should target complaints elsewhere
Pep Guardiola made a fair point about the idiocy of his Manchester City team being made to play its FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Saturday rather than Sunday even though his side had had a gruelling Champions League tie against Real Madrid on Wednesday while Coventry City and Manchester United had been idle all week.
Guardiola and all managers who complain about player welfare, though, should complain to their clubs first. The clubs agree the deal with broadcasters for the most money they can get and so they can hardly complain if the broadcasters choose the game that is the most commercially attractive for them.
If the clubs took less cash in return for retaining some control over fixtures, then managers would have fewer grounds for complaint. I’m just waiting for Spurs and Newcastle, who have organised a 20,000 mile round-trip to Australia three days after the end of the domestic season, to mention player welfare. Then we really will have heard it all.
