Premier League Holding Back the England Team; Time for a Change

The Premier League is the best league in the world…isn’t it?  I thought it was, but the national team says something completely different.  If we truly had the best league, then our national team would be one of the best.

Instead, the fear of relegation has led to the Premier League being filled with defensive and scrappy teams.  Players are signed for their ability to dig in and knuckle down.  Teams want to grind out results to stay safe.

Television money is ruining the Premier League, as well as the English national team.

Teams like Stoke, Wigan, Wolves and Sunderland come into the league and just want to stay up.  They play uninspiring football that leaves fans frustrated, but owners are happy as long as they are in the Premier League.

What England, and the Premier League, need is a new style of play in the Premier League.  We need to avoid creating scrappy players who do a solid job, but lack creativity. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few potentially great players breaking into the Premier League. 

Players like Phil Jones, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck, among others will be great for England, I’m sure.  But outside of the top five or six teams, there is very little coming through.

The Premier League needs to change, it needs to put some emphasis on attacking and exciting football.  Only then will England truly compete at a world level.

The reason for all of this is not just the television money, but the way it is sold, through collective bargaining.

The Premier League sells television rights as a league, and then distributes money amongst members.  Falling out of the league means you lose your money.  For many clubs, that just isn’t an option.  So they get scrappy.

Teams play negative and defensive football.  They make sure that a game is not lost, instead of pressing to win it.  That’s having a big effect on the national team, as creative English players are few and far between.

The model England needs to follow is that of Spain.  Teams do not sell their television rights as a collective, but individually.  Teams like Wigan, Wolves, Stoke, along with Sunderland, won’t get a lot of money in Spain.  In fact, the Premier League, outside of the top six, wouldn’t get much money.

The reason is the football. 

Bring in individual television rights, and teams all of a sudden have to play an attractive style of football if they want to sell their rights.

If teams want to make money from television, then they will need to play attractive football.   Teams like Blackpool, who play attacking football that is enjoyable to watch, will flourish.

Teams like Wigan and Wolves, who don’t, will be relegated.  Suddenly, the league becomes a whole lot more enjoyable. 

If the Premier League changed, if TV money was sold individually, then boring and unadventurous football would soon disappear. 

Instead, academies would look to produce creative players with flair.  Instead of spending millions of pounds on players to do a solid job keeping the team up, younger, exciting players would get a chance.

It won’t happen overnight, but it would happen.  Teams would come up from the Championship and play like Blackpool did, with aggression and without fear.

Soon enough, our national team would be filled with exciting players, in the same way Spain has filled their national team with exciting players.  During Euro ‘96, Spain were nothing special, but 15 years on, they are the best in the world.

If things change for the better, and an emphasis is put on creative and attacking football, then success is only a generation away.