History of the Premier League: How did it all begin?

On May 27, 1992, the English Premier League was formed. Its emergence results from the intertwining of a considerable number of circumstances. But at one point, everything came together to create the most prosperous football league in the world today.

Those who watch the nation’s national team suffer in the big tournaments every two years and despair of finding local young talent in the squads of the top clubs agree with him as well as fans all over the country whose teams in the new reality have no chance of achieving anything serious because of the monstrous financial disparity, which only continues to grow. After all, in just the first ten years of the Premier League’s existence, from 1992 to 2002, 36 professional clubs from the lower divisions faced financial problems or went under external management. Today, even some types of teen patti online game have the theme of the league, which shows the popularity of the world event.

Money Matters

A few decades ago, clubs gave 20 percent of ticket proceeds to the visiting team, and that was the norm. And when in 1965, the BBC paid £5,000 to show match reviews on Match of the Day, the amount was divided equally between all 92 clubs in the Football League – £50 each.

On the other hand, the late 1980s and early 1990s were when the almost 10-year reign of Margaret Thatcher, who with an iron hand finally destroyed all post-war attitudes and principles, shredded the whole of Britain, for which a large part of the country still hates her. But it was also a time of opportunity. 

Too much had accumulated over the past decade and too much came together at one point. On the one hand, the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, which became a symbol of all the problems of the 1980s, and the subsequent act of Lord Taylor’s government, which, among other things, required clubs to rebuild and modernize their stadiums. On the other hand, England’s performance at the 1990 World Cup forced the country to turn its face back to football. 

Meeting at Suntory

And, of course, the people. In the 1980s, people came into managing several big clubs who understood that you could make money from football. They wanted to do so – Martin Edwards at Manchester United, David Dane at Arsenal, Irving Scholar at Tottenham. And, of course, Greg Dyke, then head of ITV Sport, the broadcaster’s sports division, and the BBC, the leading free-to-air broadcaster in the country.

So it all comes back to the money. The top clubs no longer wanted to live like in good old England, when all receipts were divided evenly. The first attempted rebellion happened in 1985, with the First Division clubs taking 50% of the revenues.

The year 1988 was crucial. The league was coming to the end of a two-year contract with ITV for the ridiculous sum of 6.3 million pounds. At the same time, Rupert Murdoch came on the scene, preparing to launch Sky in the UK and offering the league 47 million pounds for the rights for four years. The third factor was a meeting between Dike and Dane at a trendy London restaurant, Suntory. Dijk saw potential in football and wanted to buy the rights for ITV separately to show matches of the so-called “big five” – the most historically significant and famous clubs (MU, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Everton). It was then that the talk began of a super league, which would include ten teams. All the more so because Dane was closely following the sports industry in the United States, saw how it was developing, and wanted to follow its examples rather than swim in line with tradition.

That aspiration, by the way, remains. When the AFL gave up its title sponsor at the end of its contract with a bank in 2016, the league reasoned that, following the example of American companies, it wanted a “clean brand,” and it has followed that strategy ever since. Before that, though, there was no title partner only in the first season. Everything began with a four-year contract for 12 million pounds with the Brewers – then, it was a record deal in British sport. The final agreement with the bank was already ten times bigger – for 120 million pounds for three years.

Going back to 1988 – the league was terrified, as were the smaller clubs. In the end, a split was avoided. ITV bought the rights for four years for £44 million, the top division clubs were already getting 75% of the amount, plus matches started being scheduled for 5 p.m. Sundays, which was convenient for TV and didn’t exist before.

• “I bought the entire football league for the amount they now pay for one match. And I was blamed for it for a long time – they said I overpaid too much,” Dyck recalled many years later in an interview with The Guardian. So Dyck’s meeting with the Big Five in October 1990 is considered vital.
• “We were having dinner, and I said: ‘We’re not going to pull off a deal like that a second time. The league is much better organized. So what will we do if we don’t get the same contract?” And then Dane said: “It’s time to separate,” Dyke recalled.

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The war with the FA

Here again, the circumstances converged. At that time, the Football Association was in a state of cold war with the league – they shared spheres of influence; in addition, the bone of contention was the national team. So Dane and Liverpool manager Noel White began negotiations with the FA.

The second man in the federation, Graham Kelly, was interested. Work began. Alex Flynn of an advertising and consulting agency started their career on the project. One part of it was that there would be 18 clubs in the Premier League rather than 22 as in the old top division – and fewer games would be more profitable for England.

On April 5, the FA office held a second historic meeting. Those pining for the good old days and dissatisfied with what they see as the current excessive commercialization believe that this was when English football took a wrong turn. The 18-club project was controversial. Some thought that fewer matches meant less profit. Smaller clubs were afraid of ending up in the sequestered four and not getting into the new league. However, then-head of the FA, Bert Millichip, said: “It’s your league, you decide.” And he even offered a nearby conference room.

That’s when the premier league was established, and two simple tenets were adopted, seemingly simple and logical now but completely revolutionary 30 years ago. Firstly, the company is managed by its member clubs – no commissions, committees, or other bureaucracy. One club – one vote; you need 2/3 of the votes to make a decision. Secondly, the new principle of sharing the money from TV remains within the league and is divided according to the code of 50-25-25. So 50% – equally between all clubs, 25% – depending on the place taken, and another 25% depending on the number of broadcasts, which created more or less equal conditions for all.

As it turned out, the new structure is ideally suited for the coming era, when TV is the primary way to consume sports content, and the sport is smoothly merged into the entertainment industry.