Soccer: Top 10 reasons to love and hate the Premier League

It's the most famous sports league in the world, and long may it reign. Since a mega-money BSkyB television deal launched the Premier League into the stratosphere 17 years ago, English soccer has ruled.

From the safety of this side of the planet, away from high ticket prices and a soccer saturated culture, the Premier League is a winner most of the way.

With money flooding into the game, English clubs have been able to load up with talented imports (along with more than a few expensive duds it must be said).

This blend of English soccer's high-energy style and the extreme skill of the foreigners is a magic formula. The drama, both on and off the field, is relentless in a league televised to 200 countries.

The season starts this weekend. Here are 10 reasons to love and hate the Premier League over the years, with the emphasis on the former.

1 Wayne Rooney

It's the way the stocky Manchester United star plays the game that steals the show. With so many foreigners dominating, it needs an Englishman capable of holding the ball and the headlines.

Rooney's move from Everton epitomised the league's major weakness, the inability of clubs outside of the so-called top four to attract and retain the best players. You might also feel that he hasn't quite reached his full potential with United.

But his low-to-the-ground game, the harrying of opponents, the dribbling and quick one-twos, are terrific to watch. He's no prima donna either, with a big heart that powers him back to help his defenders.

Rooney plays the way so many kids dream they could play.

2 Money

A love-hate business. The amounts involved contribute to the glitz and glamour, a-la Hollywood. Money is the very reason why the league is now the world's best.

Yet the player wages and agent demands are borderline obscene, especially when a $300,000-a-week footballer can't even make the first team. (There are 1966 English World Cup heroes who sell their medals for about what a current superstar earns in a week).

Each club gets, on average, well over $100 million a year from the media deals. Yet it was estimated recently by the Chelsea fan club that it costs a supporter, on average, a whopping $300 to attend each home match.

Prices outside of London are slightly more reasonable of course. The league is awash with money and debt, to the point that a number of clubs have gladly sold out to dodgy characters.

Ethics are very loose in this area. And there are continual doomsday prophecies that clubs will collapse. The fans have already been hit hard in the pocket, and the proverbial may still hit the fan one day.


3 Arsenal

They used to be a team that many loved to hate.

But for all of Manchester United's domination, the Gunners of the early 2000s are generally regarded as the finest in the league's history and the central figure, Frenchman Thierry Henry, perhaps the best player to have graced the competition.

This team went through the 2003/04 season unbeaten in claiming its second title of the period. It was a glorious combination of skill, power and athleticism. Manchester United supremo Alex Ferguson wasn't falling for any of the nonsense about an Arsenal dynasty though.

The Premier League title count stands at Manchester United 11, Arsenal 3, Chelsea 2, Blackburn Rovers 1. As this remarkable statistic shows, the Premier League could do with a new champion, even if it was a one-season wonder.

Maybe Liverpool can do the bizzo, finally. Aston Villa, who are full of English players, and filthy rich Manchester City, are prospects. If Fifa can introduce rules demanding quotas of home grown players, Villa will be in the box seat.

4 The brilliant media coverage

Free via the internet, although that is about to change with BSkyB overlord and media king Rupert Murdoch on the subscription prowl.

The range and quality of the newspaper coverage is unmatched in world sport. If you live in England, and aren't a soccer nut, this coverage might be invasive. But from a distance, it's magic.

The only caveat is that managerial gripes get more space than they deserve.

5 Alex Ferguson

Love the guy ... also sorely tempted not to. At times, from a neutral standpoint, it is a personality only a mother could love. Yet such a well-defined, strong character is also fascinating.

His record speaks for itself. He has an ability to reinvent teams, move with and define the times, and win titles in the Manchester United tradition of panache. His instincts are superb, his teams infused with magic.

Just look at the managerial carnage around him, yet he has dominated for two decades. The force of his personality often gets United through - last season's European Cup final exposed his team's creative weaknesses yet they were still too good for their Premier League challengers.

But Ferguson gives the league a nasty edge with his attacks on anything that gets in his way. Whatever your take on Ferguson, though, the Premier League wouldn't be the same without him.

6 The club names

Love them. There are two Wanderers, plus a Villa, Hotspur, Rovers, Arsenal and Athletic nestled among the Cities and Uniteds this season.

It may be a millionaire's paradise, but these names help evoke the days of creaky wooden stadiums and blokes giving their all for loose change.

The clubs retain a rich identity to counter-balance the erratic player loyalty and club transfer wheeling and dealing, and those wonderful names help.

Mobile American franchises these are not. You may struggle to find an Englishman in some team lists but then again, Manchester United is still in Manchester.

The old promotion-relegation concept is also a winner, producing high drama of its own. The recent tradition-busting proposal to play an extra match in another country was scary though.

7 The banter

Honestly Guv, you can get to work in NZ some days and it sounds like Old Blighty. Portsmouth this, Arsenal that. There is so much to know about the Premier League, and so many people who want to know it and want you to know they know it.

When I started at the Herald two decades ago, there were two Bolton Wanderers fans among a staff of eight - and the Premier Leaguers were in the old fourth division.

8 The alarm clock

A reliable alarm plays a major part in Premier League watching. Sometimes you greet the bell with glee - great, Man U versus Liverpool - and leap out of bed. On other occasions you give the alarm a bit of a slap and carry on with the Zs.

Then there is the lip-smacking anticipation of doing an all nighter - staying up for three games in a row. By the next day though, the world is a little foggy. The simple-to-use recording genius MySky (free ad here) is essential if you can afford it.

9 Commentary and camera work

Understated and classy. The commentaries are minimalist, based on a run-of-play specialist with a former player like Robbie Earle, my personal favourite, alongside ( as long as one of them hasn't been delayed on a motorway).

There's none of the verbal and statistical overdrive that sometimes works, but can also ruin, other sports. For all of the money involved, a sense of the game's personalities and character remains through the commentaries.

10 The love

In a world of bitter and lethal divisions, the Premier League is a beautiful melting pot of nationalities, race, colour, religion and creed. They'll even take the odd Australian (that's a joke).

You can find the world within the Premier League. Maybe the truckloads of money and narcissistic tendencies obscure this point.

NOTE: There, almost managed a whole piece on the English Premier League without mentioning the departed Manchester United whizz Cristiano Ronaldo. What a footballer. But love has turned to anything but. All that money, adulation, European and domestic trophies - and he still wants to bugger off? Loyalty, what loyalty?