The Club

The story of how English football conquered the world is far less romantic than you might think. There is basically only one main ingredient in this magic formula: money. The rise of the Premier League has in many ways been like a wild gold rush. Over time, it has shown the same cracks as all those other financial bubbles created at the beginning of this century; the only difference is that the football bubble has not burst …yet.

The Football League, the oldest football competition in the world, was established in Manchester in 1888, and was initially made up of 12 teams. In 1892, the Football League was split into the First and Second Division. In 1920, there were three divisions, and by 1958, they reached four divisions with a total of 92 teams. The creation of the Premier League in 1992 changed this pattern, effectively eliminating a division from the Football League. The most important consequence of this newly autonomous championship, however, was the transformation of football from a purely socialist sport into a purely capitalist one. Graham Taylor, who was manager of the England national team at the time, insightfully observed that this new model was based on greed.