The English Premier League Effect

I was reading this on the bbc website and it reminded me of the situation here... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7526005.stm

(apologies if posted in the wrong place!)

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Is Premier League killing Nigerian football?

By Andrew Walker
BBC News, Abuja


About 30,000 Nigerians took advantage of a rare chance to see their football heroes in action on Sunday, as Manchester United beat Portsmouth 2-1 in a friendly in the capital, Abuja.


Nigerians are mad for the Premiership, not so crazy about their own leagues

The attendance was higher than for many games between local teams and while the popularity of the Premier League grows in Nigeria, it seems to be at the expense of the domestic league.

Observers say the future is bleak for Nigerian football, with all its brightest stars being drawn to Europe, while its own clubs wither and die, watched by fewer and fewer people.

The coach of FC Abuja says the league officials need to change the time of their matches to avoid Premiership fixtures.

"Whenever we play at the same time as an Arsenal game, nobody shows up," says Abdu Maikaba.

Shrinking crowds

Attendances are already very low. In a country of 140 million people, where crowds will stop and watch amateurs playing in the park, professional league games struggle to get more than 20,000 paying fans to come on match days.

Tony Collins is from Anambra State in south-eastern Nigeria - and he supports Manchester United.

"I like Man Utd because they're winners. Actually I like any club that wins in Europe. Nigerians like winners, we're simple people. Nigerian clubs? Can you really compare? They're rubbish, I don't waste my time with that."

Only one or two teams have the following to sell out their home grounds, says Ismaila Lere, sports editor at the Daily Trust newspaper.

"When you look at the stadiums you'll find that the stands are virtually empty, while the bars and the joints that have satellite TV are full. People will pay to watch the Premier League on TV but not to watch Nigerian football live," he says.

The trouble started back in the early 1990s, he says. Economic reforms meant many teams went bust and were not able to pay their players.

Those players started looking towards Europe for employment. Initially, they went to Italy and Germany.

Obsession

Most Nigerians first got wind of the Premier League when Celestine Babayaro joined Chelsea in 1997.

"In the 1980s, I was the only person in my area who was watching English football," Mr Lere says.

This is a rare chance to see Kanu play in Nigeria

Now Nigerians are, like most of the world, obsessed with the English Premier League.

But in Nigeria the obsession is now going too far - after the Champions League final in May, seven people in Nigeria died in clashes between Manchester United and Chelsea fans.

And many young players want to pay in the lucrative leagues in Europe.

"When a player won't even be paid £1,000 ($2,000) per month in Nigeria, but can get £1,000 a week in Europe, what do you expect?" says Tukur Babangida, Chairman of Kano Pillars, this year's champions in Nigeria's top league.

He says that players moving to Europe is a good thing.

"Young people are inspired by the Premier League, it spurs them on to play, and the money the teams get when they move to Europe is good for the clubs."

'Globalisation'

But Mr Lere disagrees. He says corruption is rife in the Nigerian league and means that money never gets to clubs' coffers.

The coach of Kano Pillars resigned at the end of this winning season, sick of the corruption.

Clubs are run by state governments and are viewed as the personal possession of the state governor.

Match-fixing is rife, Mr Lere says. In one instance, the governor of one state asked another to throw a key match.

"The second governor told his team to lose by four goals," says Mr Lere.

It is little wonder that people do not bother watching Nigerian league football.

If current trends continue, everyone will support a Premier League team and forget about their local sides, Mr Lere says.

"It's part of globalisation. Football is not immune to that."

Supporters do not seem to care that the sides they support are not Nigerian.

"You can see I'm an Arsenal fan by the hat on my head," says Godwin Sunday, a 27-year-old labourer in Abuja.

He and his friends play football in their lunch break with a soft deflated ball and bare feet or broken shoes.

"I won't be going to the match on Sunday but I never miss a Premier League match," he says.

"Would I go to a Nigerian game? No. The Arsenal are too much better."

Abu Maikaba says the Nigerian Football League need to change their schedule urgently.

"If they can make it so we play on a day before or after Arsenal, that will be a start."

The PL is becoming huge everywhere. A South African guy who I know was telling me that for the Arsenal v Man U game last September/October, he'd have to go to the bar 2 hours(!) before the game to get a seat.

To be fair it is the best Football league in the world and that is why it is so popular. Great athmosphere at games with fans singing so much. Great football ened to end. What we need to try and get across to people is to support your own.

I share a house with a Nigerian.

He has Man united jersey's, posters, stickers for his car.

Yet the guy has never seen them live. :rolleyes:

I asked him to to take down a framed Man Utd. pcture that he had put up on our hall wall.

There is a limit to what I can take.

The nigerians do seem to love MU, I know 3 nigerians and a Ghanian from 5-a-side footie and 3 of them are MU supporters(the other been Arsenal), bit strange, you would think that if they had to support an English team it would be someone like Porthsmouth, Villa or Man City where who actually have nigerians in their starting line ups

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Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac

To be fair it is the best Football league in the world and that is why it is so popular. Great athmosphere at games with fans singing so much. Great football ened to end. What we need to try and get across to people is to support your own.

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I'd dispute that - it's hyped and there is no doubt about the quality of the top 4, but I'd rather watch Spanish football - the technical ability is much higher than the Premier League.

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Originally Posted by bigmac

I'd dispute that - it's hyped and there is no doubt about the quality of the top 4, but I'd rather watch Spanish football - the technical ability is much higher than the Premier League.

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No.1 ranked league in the Europe and Europe has the best leagues in the world, spanish league is good but it seems to lack atmosphere in quite a few of the games.

Substituting Nigerian for Irish this rings very true.

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"I like Man Utd because they're winners. Actually I like any club that wins in Europe. Irish like winners, we're simple people. Irish clubs? Can you really compare? They're rubbish, I don't waste my time with that."

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The FAI really should focus their marketing on getting everyone to pick an LOI team to support in the same way everyone has a EPL team whether they even been there or not.

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Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac

No.1 ranked league in the Europe and Europe has the best leagues in the world, spanish league is good but it seems to lack atmosphere in quite a few of the games.

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Fair enough, but I think that the Premier is more lopsided and this is what Sky Sports ignores and glosses over by hyping up any game involving the big 4. Hull against Stoke is hardly a glowing endorsement of the best league in the world?

My opinion is that the technical tradition of the game in Spain & Italy versus the long ball direct, "they don't like it up them" traditional English approach means that the teams outside the top 4 are better in those countries. Hence I think that you see a better level of football watching Spanish games. The margin of difference between the ranking of Spain and England is also pretty low - at the end of the season it was less than half a coefficient point - which, as anyone following our own progression will tell you, is very tight.

The atmosphere argument is another product of hype and our closeness to the English culture. It reflects the last 10 years of Sky Sports prefacing every matchday with a superlative - Super Sunday etc.. in an attempt to convince you that what you're watching is the most important, biggest and best match of the season so far and nothing else comes close. The commentators are always trying to build it up, regardless of the actual atmosphere in the ground. "It's really starting to bubble up nicely here now", "the crowd are starting to get going" etc... Atmospheres in Spain are always going to be quieter - they have different traditions, eg waving white handkerchiefs in the air.

What probably annoys me most about the EPL is their (almost) complete dessertion of the young English player.

Take Liverpool's academy for instance. In the 90s, it produced players like Fowler, McManaman, Owen, Carragher and Gerrard, all top level players. It also produced lower-key, but still decent PL players like David Thompson and Dominic Matteo.

Now, their academy has not produced a first-team regular since Gerrard himself. They now have kids from all corners of the globe, and the young Scousers are barely being given a chance. Not only that, but most of these kids won't make it either, and then they're just dumped back to their country of origin like returning a garment that didn't fit. And yes, I know Arsenal do the exact same and did it first, but that doesn't make this practice right, or even ethical. (this is why I'm glad there's talk of a ban on u-18 transfers, although I think it should still be allowed within the country itself)

They recently bought Andrea Dossena, for instance. He came through the ranks in Italy because his club couldn't just afford to buy whatever left back they wanted, so they had to train him up to the required standard. He then gets to play and get experience, because there isn't some expensive import to take his place. EPL clubs don't have to do this, because they have so much money, they just buy up the players from other leagues who got the experience in the first place because those leagues don't have the same money!

The only clubs that still promote English players are Man City, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and West Ham. And then, these players are hyped to the stars simply because they're English players who've come through.

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Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac

Great athmosphere at games with fans singing so much.

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I trust you're being sarcastic?

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Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac

What we need to try and get across to people is to support your own.

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I don't begrudge the interest in the EPL. I like it myself. I just can't understand why people can't get involved here, and have their share of 'bar action' as well. It's easy to do.

Did anyone see the article over the weekend (tribune mag I think) about the fans that go over to the UK? One lad from Bray spends 4k a year going over to Liverpool. A guy from, i think, an MUFC supporters club said one of their members had been to 20+ games.

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Originally Posted by stovelid

I don't begrudge the interest in the EPL. I like it myself. I just can't understand why people can't get involved here, and have their share of 'bar action' as well. It's easy to do.

Did anyone see the article over the weekend (tribune mag I think) about the fans that go over to the UK? One lad from Bray spends 4k a year going over to Liverpool. A guy from, i think, an MUFC supporters club said one of their members had been to 20+ games.

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Would know of six people who have season tickets with Man Utd for the last two seasons and four of these guys went to Moscow. They must have spent thousands over the last two years. Wouldnt go to an Irish game if it was in their back garden.

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Originally Posted by Morbo

The nigerians do seem to love MU, I know 3 nigerians and a Ghanian from 5-a-side footie and 3 of them are MU supporters(the other been Arsenal), bit strange, you would think that if they had to support an English team it would be someone like Porthsmouth, Villa or Man City where who actually have nigerians in their starting line ups

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In fairness i've never really seen any Africans watching United games, any time they were playing Chelsea or (more so)Arsenal i saw quite a few there in support of Uniteds respective opposition(which makes sense since there's a few Africans in those teams). Having said that i could'nt tell you what part of Africa these fellas were from, only that there the only clubs i've seen Africans supporting, rarely any for Man' Utd.

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Originally Posted by gilberto_eire

In fairness i've never really seen any Africans watching United games, any time they were playing Chelsea or (more so)Arsenal i saw quite a few there in support of Uniteds respective opposition(which makes sense since there's a few Africans in those teams). Having said that i could'nt tell you what part of Africa these fellas were from, only that there the only clubs i've seen Africans supporting, rarely any for Man' Utd.

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In my experience (West Africa) they tend to do the Sunderland thing and follow teams that have players from that region (not necessarily same country).

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Originally Posted by gilberto_eire

In fairness i've never really seen any Africans watching United games, any time they were playing Chelsea or (more so)Arsenal i saw quite a few there in support of Uniteds respective opposition(which makes sense since there's a few Africans in those teams). Having said that i could'nt tell you what part of Africa these fellas were from, only that there the only clubs i've seen Africans supporting, rarely any for Man' Utd.

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great post very informative :)

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Originally Posted by gilberto_eire

In fairness i've never really seen any Africans watching United games, any time they were playing Chelsea or (more so)Arsenal i saw quite a few there in support of Uniteds respective opposition(which makes sense since there's a few Africans in those teams). Having said that i could'nt tell you what part of Africa these fellas were from, only that there the only clubs i've seen Africans supporting, rarely any for Man' Utd.

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Been to Frazers a few times to watch when missus is shopping down town and United have defo got the biggest african following closely followed by Chelsea.

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Originally Posted by Rovers Maniac

To be fair it is the best Football league in the world and that is why it is so popular. Great athmosphere at games with fans singing so much. Great football ened to end. What we need to try and get across to people is to support your own.

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It has far from the best leauge in the world imho .It the hyped pile of muck at times .Granted there are occasional games that are superb between the top sides , but lots of average crap also .As for atmosphere ? Bundesliga or any of the south american leauges puts it to shame .The premier leauge has done its best to kill any atmosphere in the last ten years .We have a crowd coming over from the midlands every year who prefer the atmosphere at eircom leauge games in comparison to the english premier leauge , im sure there are some super atmospheres but nothing compared to germany etc.