00:02The Premier League is the engine of English football.
00:09It is the most watched domestic competition in the world.
00:15Consequently, it generates the most broadcast and sponsorship revenue,
00:19allowing English clubs to monopolise the best players and coaches in the world.
00:25But this is a comparatively recent development.
00:33For over a century, the English game was a neat pyramid topped by the Football League.
00:39Founded in 1888, it is the oldest football league in the world and grew to sustain four divisions.
00:49It was famed for its openness, with the champions of Division 1 emerging from all regions of the country at
00:55different points in time,
00:56with success largely fleeting and based on a single manager or fertile youth system.
01:06But by the 1980s, the model was tiring.
01:11Hooliganism was rife on the terraces.
01:13The English national team was underperforming.
01:15And Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga were demonstrating the power of commercial freedom.
01:26So in 1992, the Premier League broke away from the Football League.
01:32Untethered, it became a runaway success, capitalising on the recent innovation of satellite television.
01:39By 2024, 14 of the top 30 football clubs by revenue were English.
01:48As money flowed into the top tier, stadiums were upgraded, foreign players and coaches were recruited,
01:55and eventually, wealthy foreign owners followed suit.
02:01English football transformed in a single generation.
02:04It is a case study in the good, and bad, of neoliberalism.
02:10Gone are crumbling stadiums and mud-heat pitches.
02:13But significant community assets are now geopolitical playthings of nation-states and oligarchs.
02:21Throughout, English clubs have rarely dominated European competitions as might have been expected.
02:29The only period of consistent success arrived between 1977 and 1984,
02:36when seven of eight European Cups were shared by Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
02:42A run that ended with English clubs being banned from UEFA competitions for five years, following the Heysel tragedy.
02:51Even now, despite the deep-pocketed Manchester City dominating the Premier League,
02:56the Champions League has proven a tough nut to crack.
03:01And as the Premier League extends its stranglehold on football's purse strings,
03:05it will become increasingly difficult to deny England its place as the home of the sport
03:11and status as the most historic football nation.
03:16notpropel This is our national history ofĂșltoast,
03:16we're looking to see once again all that years of the country,
03:16And we're looking to see the centre of the country's international history.
03:16The only reason is that if we are doing this,
03:16So, thank you for an exceptionally good news,
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