Fittingly, English football’s shining beacon was born out of some of the darkest
days in the country’s footballing history. In the 1970s and 80s, the sport was
characterised by chronic financial mismanagement and a lack of commercial
awareness. There was significantly limited live TV coverage, meaning that clubs
had to rely on matchday income, such as ticket sales, to survive. Football
authorities were afraid that if matches were broadcasted live attendances would
decline, meaning that clubs would lose out on their most crucial revenue stream.
The leagues were also littered with old, decaying and dangerous stadiums which
set the scene for various societal issues, including rampant hooliganism.
As the BBC uncovered in a 1977 episode of Panorama, hooliganism was strongly
associated with extreme, racist, political groups such as the National Front. The
initial response to hooliganism was aggressive policing of football supporters. Ken
Bates, the owner of Chelsea football club, responded to violence at Stamford
Bridge by applying to the local council ‘to erect an electric fence in front of one
stand’. His application, unsurprisingly, was rejected.
The dark ages of English football reached its lowest ebbs in the late 1980s. In
1985, during a match between Bradford and Lincoln City, a fire broke out which,
within four minutes, had engulfed the entire main stand, killing 56 supporters and
injuring 265. In the same year, English football’s hooliganism reputation worsened
after rioting at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus caused a
section of the stadium to collapse, killing 39 Juventus fans and injuring 600. The
incidents at Heysel Stadium saw English clubs banned from European competition
for five years; Liverpool for six. In 1989, during an FA Cup semi-final between
Liverpool and Sheffield United at Hillsborough Stadium, 96 Liverpool fans lost
their lives and 766 were injured when negligent organisation allowed a crush to
develop in the standing-only pens in the Leppings Lane stand.
Such seismic occurrences forced central government to intervene. The Taylor
Report was published in 1990. It’s best remembered for recommending that stadia
become all-seater, but also banned alcohol consumption in view of the pitch and
prompted football to “move upmarket as to follow the affluent ‘middle class’ in
his or her pursuits and aspirations”, as detailed in the FA’s Blueprint for the Future
of Football (1991). Modernisation was seen as the key driving force for the
development of English football and set the foundations for the Premier League’s
classy, global brand. Also relevant to birth of the Premier League
was the declining relationship between the Football League and the FA. With
commercialisation growing in the 1980s and 90s (shirt sponsorship was only
permitted from the early 80s onwards) political tension festered between those sharing
the game’s regulatory power. David Dein, Arsenal’s then deputy chairman,
was a huge advocate of America’s razzmatazz sport industry and was frustrated
by the lack of commercial imagination in English football’s hierarchy.
In 1988, Dein and other executives from Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool and
Tottenham Hotspur met with the chief executive of London Weekend Television and
chairman of ITV Sport, Greg Dyke, over the prospect of selling their rights;
effectively forming a breakaway competition. The Football League, however,
found out about the coup and quickly sold their rights to ITV Sport at a cut-down
price to prevent a breakaway. In reaction to the threat of being left behind,
the Football League published a report One Team, One Game, One Voice (1990)
in which they called for more cooperation with the FA and a holistic approach
to developing all of English football’s professional leagues. Meanwhile,
Dein and Liverpool’s Noel White approached the FA’s Graham Kelly with another
secession proposal from the Football League, which was well received.
In response to the Football League’s report, the FA’s Blueprint for the Future of
Football (1991) rejected the proposals and consolidated itself as the controlling
governing body of English football. It also listed the potential benefits of a new,
breakaway top division, something that would significantly weaken the Football
League’s influence. The justifications for the creation of the
Premier League listed in Blueprint were that a new, isolated top division would put
an end to power struggles in the game, improve the image of the sport, enhance the
prospects of success for the England team, improve the chances of further funding
from the government and deliver enhanced commercial benefits.
On the 5th of April 1991, the FA announced its plans for a breakaway league,
shifting the power of influence from the Football League to the FA. Meetings were
held with representatives of the top division clubs to discuss the fine details of the
new competition, where, somewhat surprisingly, the FA seceded control to the
clubs. Sir Bert Millicip, chairman of the FA, when asked about the optimum number
of teams in the competition replied, “It’s your league, you decide.” Alex Fynn, an
executive from Saatchi & Saatchi commissioned to help oversee the organisation of