body-container-line-1

The Barclays Premier League and Africa’s love affair: Jealous local leagues

By ghanasoccernet.com
Sports News The Barclays Premier League and Africas love affair: Jealous local leagues
MAY 4, 2016 LISTEN

The influence of the English Premier League in African keeps growing at every material time.

Every weekend, the English game takes the headlines from Nairobi to Addis Ababa and every corner of the African continent. On Saturdays and Sundays, pubs across Africa continent are turned into viewing centres for Premier League games.

A kid on the street of Lagos can name the entire first XI of his favourite Barclays Premier League club and this is replicated everywhere from Cairo to Harare.

The success Barclays Premier League is enjoying now did not come by accident or was it inspired by magic. Every commercial success they enjoy now is a result of a long term investment.

Before the 1990s, the English Premier League had fallen behind other European major leagues like Italian Serie A and the Spanish La Liga in terms of commercial success and attendances at the grounds.

The English game had been ruined by hooliganism with clubs from the Isle serving a ban in European competitions for five years following the Heysel Disaster in 1985.

The best players from Europe, South America and Africa were either in Spain or in Italy.

The Dutch league stereotyped for breeding ground of talents attracted established super stars than the English League.

The beginning of today's global brand known as the Premier League started when Greg Dyke together with representatives of the 'Big Five' clubs in England led a revolution which would see the Elite division clubs breaking away from the old Football League to form the Premier League.

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS
1992/93 was the first Premier League season and that was won by Manchester United.

The new League Board made up of the clubs negotiated and signed a broadcasting rights contract with British Sky Broadcasting and the BBC valued at £304 million.

That was the biggest agreement in the history of British sport then and they have never looked back since.

britishcup44cmenglishpremiershipchampionsthefabarcleyenglishfontbpremierbfont

In 2015, clubs in the English Premier League received another windfall when Sky Sport and British Telecom (BT) renewed the broadcast rights for another three seasons in a record £5.14b deal not forgetting the BBC's £204m to retain their highlight rights for the same period. Add this to the international right and the amount could well be about £9 billion.

The Premier League now is the most-watched football league in the world. It is shown in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

HOW THE ENGLISH FA KEEPS WINNING
The Power of the English Media:
You can hate them but when it comes to a nation's mediamachinery  pushing an agenda only the USA can rival their counterparts in the UK. They can make you hate what you love most or love what you hate depending on their wishes.

The money they pay to get the various broadcast right is huge and the only way to recoup their investment is to ensure the success of the brand. An example is the seriousness Talksport UK attach to their match day commentary which they have resold to radio stations across the world from which Citi FM, the radio station I work for, has benefited.

Talksports' partners across the world also take the product serious because they do pay an arm and a leg for it. Every effort is channeled in making the commentary the best.

Africa's leading cable television operators, SuperSport, had to fork out £296 million for the 2015/16 to 2018/19 seasons. If you pay this amount, you need no one to tell you to double your promotional effort.

THE STRUGGLING AFRICAN LEAGUES
Linking this to struggling African leagues, the money the media firms pay to secure the various broadcast right be it TV, print or radio is negligible and in some cases, free so they are not eager to promote the brand because they lose little or nothing when interest in the league is low.

THE GROWING AFRICAN STARS IN THE ENGLISH GAME

The growing number of African stars in the league cannot be overlooked.

When Michael Essien was signed by Chelsea in 2005 many Ghanaian started to get affection for Chelsea increasing the number of Premier League followers in Ghana.

Same can be said of Nigerians when their idol Kanu was signed by Arsenal.

michaelessienjoinsreal008

In the recent African Cup of Nations held in Equatorial Guinea, the Barclays Premier League was only 2nd to the French Ligue 1 with respect to number of players in the tournament with 19 (footballers) even though Nigeria which has a large contingent in England failed to qualify for the tournament.

When the numbers of African internationals increase, there will be more interest on the part of Africans in the league.

RECOGNITION GIVEN TO AFRICAN PLAYERS
Another reason for Africans' strong feeling for the Premier League is the recognition given to them by the League and the various clubs.

The clubs recognise the various fan clubs in Africa. They communicate with the recognized fun clubs in the various African countries.

I was in Rwanda when fans of Swansea City in Uganda travelled 10 hours just to meet Andre Ayew and take pictures with him. The player was in Rwanda with the Black Stars to play an AFCON 2017 qualifier.

Arsenal made a video which featured Striker Danny Welbeck of Ghanaian descent wishing Arsenal fans in Ghana a Happy New Year in Ghanaian language of Twi.

download28

There is also the regular trophy tour where the Barclays Premier League trophy is accompanied by club legends tour selected cities in Africa to let the fans have a feel of the coveted trophy.

All these make the romance between Africa football fans and product EPL a tight one.

The love story is not going to end soon.
HOW AFRICANS CAN LEARN FROM THE SUCCESS OF THE BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

The Premier League, with all its popularity, never rests on it success.

Like Coca Cola, their bottles can be found in every home from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe but they still invest in advertisments.

African leagues can take a cue from this because in today's world, radio, print and TV is everything.

The more your product is seen or heard the more it is patronized.

- See more at: http://sport.citifmonline.com/2016/05/03/the-barclays-premier-league-and-africas-love-affair-jealous-local-leagues/#sthash.c5EJn3x4.dpuf

body-container-line