The English Premier League’s glory was on full display last Sunday May 29, 2021, in Porto, Portugal, as Chelsea took on Manchester City for the coveted UEFA Champions’ League trophy. Chelsea won against the favourites, Manchester City, and Nigerians have been celebrating non-stop since then. Nigerians would have been celebrating either way, since both teams are EPL clubs, who had come through the most prestigious competition in club football with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United, etc, having fallen along the way. The 2021 Premier League season itself ended the previous Sunday, May 23, with Manchester City crowned champions over their closest rival, and hitherto serial winners, Manchester United. Judging by the sheer number of families who follow the EPL and are split down the middle over which of the 20 teams in the league they support, individually, the summer break is a welcome relief. It is not uncommon to have everyone in a family being football fans, except, for the mothers whose interests usually lie elsewhere. Sometimes, football loyalties do test that of the family to a breaking point. It is even conceivable to have supporters of two or even three football clubs cramped together inside one household. Post-match ‘analyses’ are usually rancorous affairs given the individual’s various level of knowledge of the game. How on earth some families handle the remote control during half-time breaks is left for conjecture.
To enliven this discussion a bit. There was an incident with a family of four driving home from an event a little while ago. Daddy was on the steering wheel, while mummy sat with him in the front. Their restless teenage offspring were at the back, as they tuned into a live match over the radio. At first, they had tried rushing through the traffic to get home quick, but when daddy’s concentration and erratic driving were becoming too dangerous for everyone, they decided to pack the car in an alley way nearby, turned off the engine, and listened to the full commentary until the final whistle before driving off again. To say that this particular family is consumed by the game of football is an understatement. What is more, the clubs and the players whom they know by name, individually, and their idiosyncrasies, are more than 6,000 miles away in the UK. The question that boggles the mind is why people in this country obsessed so much about something happening in far-away lands and at great expense, andwith so much energy?
The EPL is not the only one with a huge following in Nigeria though. The Italian ‘Serie A’, and Spanish ‘La liga’ are the two other closely watched. The reason for England’s pre-eminence is first, Nigeria’s past colonial tie with the UK. Second is the fact that English clubs have featured many prominent Nigerian footballers such as: Nwankwo Kanu, Daniel Amokachi, Celestine Babayaro, Yakubu Ayeigbeni, John Utaka, Mikel Obi, Odion Ighalo and currently, Alex Iwobi, Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho doing well for their respective clubs, and also playing for Nigeria. And, who could forget the theatrics of Austin (Jay-Jay) Okocha, by far the most flamboyant of them all. Given all that and more, it still does not explain why the EPL clubs attract such passionate following in this country, to the point where rival supporters literally go into battle inside “beer parlours” (pubs) and bars remonstrating with one another over the final details of a match. If you listen out to the idle chatters during half-time, sometimes, you will hear (mostly) young men loudly proclaiming in such personal pronoun; “Our team”, “Our boys” the tactical genius of “our manager”, and the lousiness of the opponent etc. They deliberate and ruminate over who should be substituted, dismissed, sold, sacked or left to rot on the bench. They feel so personal and connected to ‘their clubs’ that any negative comments against them could be interpreted as a slight on their collective psyche, requiring an on-the-spot, forceful, even violent rebuttal. Nigerians have been known to rough up each other in protecting the honour of ‘their’ EPL clubs, even shedding blood in spontaneous fracas on their way home from a football match. All for a mere sporting event!
Well, football is no ordinary sport though; it is a religion. Adherence to a religious belief is not given to rational explanation; it is visceral, it is tribal, it is territorial. On the surface, the lush, (level-playing) pitches football is played on speak to its fairness and its ideal for showcasing one’s talent. After all, it is eleven vs eleven. The little rider to that is simply that some clubs are more endowed than others. Some clubs are owned by mega billionaires, and are all too willing to go shopping for the best players and managers on the planet at whatever cost, at any time. Others, less fortunate clubs, make do with pulling resources from their youth academy, buying cheap, and grooming players from the lower league clubs. The other aspect to the game of football is that, historically, it started as a working class pastime, in working class neighbourhoods in England a couple of centuries ago. Middle class kids would often gravitate towards cricket and lawn tennis. Today, football remains a potent avenue for getting out of poverty for many inner city kids around the globe. Football is BIG business. The EPL is the greatest, most visible multinational corporation on the planet.
The combined resources of the EPL clubs for 2021 amount to £14.76bn. The most watched among them, the “Big Six”: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Manchester City, alone control £11bn or the equivalent of 75% of the total revenue. They are the instantly recognisable clubs in Nigeria and all over the world. Their merchandise available and sold in every corner of every impoverished village. What about the salaries of the big stars? Gareth Bale (Tottenham forward)’s yearly salary is £31m, Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City midfielder)’s is £20m, David de Gea (Manchester United goalkeeper)’s is £19m, Raheem Sterling (Manchester City forward)’s is £15m. Neymar Jr. (Paris-St Germain forward)’s is £32m, Lionel Messi, Barcelona forward)’s is £108m, Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus forward)’s is a whopping £146m a year. This is enough to bankroll the entire Nigerian football league for the next 30 years in one fell swoop.
In case you are wondering, £1m is the naira equivalent of N6bn. What ‘skill’, what ‘entertainment value’ can the likes of Ronaldo and the other(barely literate) mega stars possibly be giving to football to warrant such crazy, eye-popping, jumbo pay packets? Surely, no one deserves to pocket £146m a year just for kicking a ball. What does that say about societal value? And guess where the revenue is mainly coming from? From franchise and image rights accruing to the clubs and players from all over the world, including Nigeria, and its teeming millions of football fans. With their fanatical support of the EPL clubs, Nigerians are directly boosting the financial health of stupendously rich clubs in Europe, and their superstar players, while their own domestic leagues, and poorly paid players, languish and suffer. The ultimate irony is that although Nigerians wish to see their national team (Super Eagles) do well at the World Cup competitions, they are also busy strengthening foreign opponents and their clubs financially. To rub salt to injury, the cable network beaming the EPL games into Nigerian households, DStv, also happens to be foreign-owned, shipping out our hard-earned cash.
So, dear compatriots and football lovers, forgive me for being a bit of a killjoy, but, give a thought to how much naira you are literally handing out to others beyond the shores of this country, with such enthusiasm, when the next EPL season returns in August 2021.
Credit: Tayo Oke