The English Premier League and International Inequality

In his book How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, author Franklin Foer briefly touches on how the clubs Juventus and AC Milan in Italy’s Serie A explain the new oligarchies forming in such a globalized economy.  However, despite discussing power and its ability to manipulate the playing field in favor of the powerful, Foer directs his focus on the powerful individuals capable of media manipulation rather than the powerful states capable of status manipulation.  As globalization increases at an increasing rate, logic dictates that resources should be more evenly dispersed among states as comparative advantage and free trade flourish.  Similarly, economically, militarily, and culturally valuable technology should become more readily available to developing states in need of it as information is exchanged more quickly, accurately, and freely.  However, in terms of which countries possess the most wealth and influence and which countries do not, very little has changed despite the communication breakthrough of the internet.  Interestingly enough, soccer (football) in Great Britain does a brilliant job illustrating the roadblocks facing developing countries attempting to ascend into the higher order of international actors even with the aid of globalization.

The English Premier League, or EPL, was established in 1992 in the United Kingdom.  It is comprised of 20 teams, has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, and operates within the English football league system (Barclays Premier League 2014).  The English football league system operates by promoting teams to higher leagues based on success and relegating teams to lower leagues in the presence of failure (Patrick 2014).  Under this system, it would seem as though any team could ascend into the highest levels of English football or descend into the bottom-most trenches, however this has not been the case.  Even though 3 clubs are promoted to the Premier League every year, only 2, Swansea and Stoke, have remained in the league following their promotion.  Swansea has only played 3 seasons while Stoke has only played 6 (Rundle 2014).  9 of the current 20 EPL clubs have never been relegated to a lower league (Manfred 2014).  Only Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers have ever won the EPL title with Manchester United having won an unprecedented 13 (Barclays Premier League 2014).  From the 1999-2000 season until the 2009-10 season, the “Big Four” English football clubs of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea occupied 38 of the 44 available top 4 finishing spots that qualify an EPL team for UEFA Champions League competition (Barclays Premier League 2014).

There is obvious stagnation at the top of the English football pyramid, but why?  The answer is the same reason why countries have such a difficult time ascending in international status despite globalization.  The top English football clubs, like the top countries of the world, maintain a disproportionate amount of the resources in terms of money, influence, and visibility in comparison to the lesser football clubs.  50% of the £1.782 billion in wages spent by EPL clubs in 2012-13 was spent by the Big Four plus Manchester City, who was recently purchased by the extremely affluent Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (Sedghi 2014).  The story is no different when discussing the countries of the world.  The top 19 countries out of 190 cataloged by the World Bank were responsible for 74% of global GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (World Bank 2013).  The disproportionate resource allocation in the EPL and in the world itself allow for the teams and countries at the top to operate massive economies of scale and manipulate comparative advantage in their favor.  As long as the wealth gap between states persists, it will remain impossible for an outside state to rise to elite status regardless of the positive effects resulting from globalization.

Barclays Premier League. "History." Barclays Premier League. Premier League, 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/about/history.html>.

Manfred, Tony. "17 Things You Never Knew About The English Premier League." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 13 May 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/premier-league-trivia-2012-5>.

Patrick, Seb. "10 Things You Should Know About the English Premier League." BBC America. BBC Worldwide Americas Inc., 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/08/10-things-know-english-premier-league/>.

Rundle, Richard. "Football Club History Database - Stoke City." Football Club History Database. Public Domain, 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.fchd.info/STOKEC.HTM>.

Rundle, Richard. "Football Club History Database – Swansea City." Football Club History Database. Public Domain, 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.fchd.info/SWANSEAC.HTM>.

Sedghi, Ami, and Tom Wills. "Premier League Finances: Turnover, Wages, Debt and Performance." The Guardian 1 May 2014. Guardian News and Media Limited or Its Affiliated Companies. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/may/01/premier-league-club-accounts-debt-wages>.

World Bank. "GDP Ranking, PPP Based." The World Bank. The World Bank Group, 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/GDP-PPP-based-table>.