Having lived my whole life in jolly old England, Premier League football (or soccer, for my Transatlantic cousins) has been a staple part of my weekends. But now, epl football is starting to rise in popularity in the States, with many people swearing off the NFL in favour of watching an appropriately named sport where the players actually have to use their feet to kick the ball (sorry, not sorry.) I’ve always loved watching it because I found it an entertaining sport, but the increasing interest in soccer in the US owes its success to a variety of factors that go beyond just the entertainment of the matches themselves.
In contrast to football, soccer is end-to-end, fast-paced action. A Wall Street Journal study estimated that NFL games contain a measly 11 minutes of actual play, broken up during each down. Meanwhile, soccer matches are played at blistering pace, with both teams trying to move the ball around quickly during their 90 minutes. By the nature of the tactics employed and the level of difficulty in scoring goals, EPL teams have to attack one another in order to win and, as such, it creates a basketball-like rhythm of oscillating attack and defence in fluid style. This is soccer’s big appeal; teams going at each creates more chances for both teams to score and provides more opportunity for silky skills and audacious shots.
Not that the NFL is in short supply of competition but, when it comes to soccer on a global scale, the EPL is pretty much the only league with a variety of teams that could win it. There are a big 6 who are generally accepted as the ‘football aristocracy’ that constitute the teams most likely to win but, even amongst these heavyweights, not one of them has retained a title since Manchester United defended theirs in 2009. And, if that weren’t enough, in 2015-16, Leicester City defied all odds and won the title in a smash-and-grab season, a perceived impossibility. Meanwhile, all other teams have something to play for, with 1st through to 7th offering the chance of playing in European competitions. Even the other end of the table have pressure on them to perform, as it’s possible to actually be relegated out of the division into the second tier. It’s no surprise that people are turning to watch the EPL when all the games are meaningful encounters.
As mentioned above, the teams finishing in the top spots of the table will also play against the best clubs from around Europe in the next season. 1st through to 4th enter into the Champions League i.e. the pinnacle of European football, where they will encounter teams such as FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, AC Milan and Paris Saint Germain. These games are supposedly the best in the world, offering the best players from all of the best leagues.
The EPL teams in 5th, 6th, usually 7th and sometimes even 8th (I won’t go into the details, but sometimes the 5th team can qualify for the Champions League) go into the Europa League, a slightly lesser version of the Champions League. Teams such as Athletico Madrid and Bayern Leverkusen will feature in this one, with the winners of the competition getting automatic entry to the Champions League for the following season. The beauty of the Europa League for the EPL is that it can allow a small team to break into it every now and then; in 2018 Burnley, an EPL underdog, qualified and performed in Europe. The drama, variety and sheer quality of European football is another reason that Americans are starting to follow the EPL, in the hope that their chosen team will compete with the big boys of Europe.
As weird as this may seem to have on this list, the transfer market is a massive reason that EPL soccer is becoming more popular. Unlike the draft in the NFL, EPL teams literally have to buy players off other teams for ridiculous sums of money during the transfer windows in August and January, meaning there’s all sorts of off-field drama. Often, valuable players will have release clauses in their contracts, meaning other clubs will have to pay a set amount before the club will even consider the buy. The players themselves can also request moves out of clubs and, to make things even more complicated, can also refuse to leave if the wages the new club are offering aren’t good enough. These purchases can make or break a clubs season, and add an off-field excitement to EPL soccer.
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