And why the rest of Europe can’t keep up
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Since 1992, the English Premier League has enjoyed some of the most remarkable growth in sports history. Today, its clubs collectively generate more than Є6.5 billion in revenue each year. But Europe’s other leagues make far less, and their disadvantage is starting to make the sport less competitive.
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Search Party is led and produced by Sam Ellis, a journalist, director, editor, and animator based in New York City. For more than 6 years, Ellis produced the hugely popular video series, Vox Atlas, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. He specializes in breaking down the most complex new stories and presenting them with a refreshing, accessible, and engaging visual style.
He’s produced explainers on some of the world’s thorniest geopolitical stories; from corruption scandals in Latin America, conflict in the Middle East, and the rise of China, to the world of sports; the Monaco Grand Prix, the FIFA corruption scandal, and the 100-foot waves of Nazaré, Portugal. Ellis has also directed multiple episodes of TV; notably on Netflix’s ‘Explained’ and HBO Sport’s ‘Level PLaying Field’.
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i would realy love to see some videos on e-sports
Will you ever be available on Nebula? I love that platform for explainers!
make videos like this with esports. i'd love to have a story like that covered in this format.
I'm English, and believe me, most fans here think it has gone too far as well. Man Citeh have 115 charges against them for cheating, Chelsea buy anything that can run, and some owners are draining the clubs dry. Meanwhile its now expensive for the working classes to go to the matches, football shirts cost a fortune, and television subscriptions are expensive. If Uefa and FIFA were not so corrupt, they would be able to deal with this.
Uefa is very strict in their competitions. But they can only enforce it on a few clubs
It is easy. Dont consume this shit. I do it since a decade. There will be nothing changed otherwise
They that dance pay the fiddler. What comes around goes around. Man City will face the consequences.
implement fifas 6+5 rule and the game will change overnight
@@BeakaD they arent strict at all. the blocked fifas 6+5 rule
And just like that I’m interested in Sports! (Sam’s got lots more stories like this in the works)
Johnny.
Love your videos, can you make a video about the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?
Should probably do one about the Saudi League and how they’re hurting the sport then.
Johnny, this is the beginning of a new chapter, a bigger one, i am excited for what the future will hold.
You guys should come to Australia to do a story on Australian Rules Football, and trace back to it's roots as a game invented by Indigenous Australians before white man arrived. Political/sport/history story 😁
Two facts that I feel are missing from the video to add some context: The fact that fewer countries are represented in late rounds of the Champions League is massively influenced by the fact that until the mid-90s, every country was only able to send a single club to the competition, whereas now up to four clubs from the top countries can qualify in parallel. Also, the Premier League always had the built-in advantage of being the one top competition that was from an English-speaking country. English is the most universal language today, and while there are lots of people who speak Spanish and quite a few who speak French, they tend to have their own native leagues to watch, whereas people from Asia and North America (except for Mexico) would find it most convenient to watch PL football in the original English presentation as opposed to German, French, Spanish or Italian football.
Having multiple tiers of competition is great for allowing smaller countries a chance at getting European representation. Even without the huge financial difference, it's unlikely a club from Macedonia would ever compete with the best from England, Germany, France and Italy. But Conference League gives those countries some chance. Although even then, both winners so far have been from the "big" football countries.
That's as simple as a great point just missing in the video. Also, before Champions League there were 3 international competitions, and all of them were quite prestigious, from three we then moved to two only (5O% less just right there) and Champions League became what it is now with 4 (or even 5 teams potentially) from the strogenst championship. Now we back to three and that's great I think. Also in the video is missing the decisive Bosman ruling (1995) that changed the entire landscape.
Maybe it's just me but I wish I could watch without hearing the commentators. Aside from some color commentary, I don't need a description of what's going on. It's not a very complicated sport. I watch other leagues all the time and I find it better when I can't understand the commentary lol. I just wanted to watch the best play the best.
Lies again? Premier League Pah Lawan
very true ,from a south asian native
It was mentioned in this but I think Barcelona’s complete mismanagement and all the financial levers they’d had to pull to even finance a new stadium and win LaLiga this season deserves it’s own video. Always enjoy new sports channel like this on KZhead!
Fc Barcelona wasent trying to keep up with the money spending of the English football clubs. It was just Bartomeu who was spending the money of Fc Barcelona so poorly, that it caused Fc Barcelona to go a lot in debt and they were in risk to become mid-tier club.
@@jout738I don’t think Barcelona were ever in risk of becoming a mid tier club for two reasons. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most attractive clubs for football players. If they weren’t so attractive I think they would struggle getting new quality signings, the academy helps a lot as well
Athletic interest did that kzhead.info/sun/Ztack8twm2ljmGg/bejne.htmlsi=vsL--EcAgTqlFR3I
Chelsea will be the next barcelona
if you don't follow tifo - they cover lots of good topics - and have done the barca stuff
As an English football fan, I can say honestly that most people in this country hate the money that has ruined our game. Outside of the top few clubs, unless some nation state comes in and throws billions at the club, you know that you can't ever really compete. Leicester City were a once in a generation exception and even they have been relegated, as they just couldn't afford to keep competing at that level. Clubs being relegated from the Premier League used to be the most likely to come back up. Now they can sink right through the leagues and go bust as the income is so much less. People have started turning to non-league and lower league football as it's more competitive.
Ironic that u use Leicester as an example when they are just like these other clubs... owned by thai billionaires... Sometimes you also simply don't know what you're missing... Lets not act like Man Utd didn't DOMINATE the league in the 90s and Liverpool back in the 70s and 80s... The PL has always had dominant teams witch occasional smaller teams winning, Arsenal Liverpool and Man Utd... Football isn't as simple as just buying players, sure city done a good job, but look at PSG (barely winning ligue 1), Real Madrid always seems to compete for UCL either way... Look at Aston Villa this season... I think english football being rich is great
"People have started turning to non-league football" since when? Nobody I know watches anything outside the Prem and the championship.
It's hilarious and ironic, that Leicester with it's 'lowely' billionaire owner at the time (RIP) is used as the underdog story. Shows just how much of a unfathomable amount of money the richest clubs and owners have.
@@kryn1030 I think what he means is in physical attendance. Which is actually becoming true. . TV and pub wise however you are right.
Man City has worked there ass off lol. And have made the infrastructre and academies which produces talent as well as buying good players for good nice money 😮😮 and turn them into great and legendary players 😊 by the helpnof none other than Pep Guardiola ❤. Man Ciry has startes from the foundations and worked its way up. Now at the top. And I would like to see lower clubs get money so they can compete if thwy want@@sneakerprep8541
You didnt cover one key matter: the Bosman Law, which allowed european clubs to sign any number of players from EU as they want, instead of a fixed number of foreign players like before. That is when football actually started breaking, with rich clubs concentrating all the best players, marginalizing teams like Ajax, Red Star and south americans (with were as good or better than the best european teams), basically turning them into "player exporters", instead of the final destination
Which is why I laugh when people say that Saudi are ruining the sport for Europe. The EPL is essentially an earlier version of the Saudi league. They say that true football is in Europe, but I am not sure this is the case. Arguably South America for example is buttressing Europe. On its own, it can compete with Europe, and without it, Europe is lesser. And the football there is more pure. So in essence, playing in the EPL as opposed to lets say playing in Argentina or Brazil is essentially a 'money move'. It is not a move for 'football' as pundits say.
Once there were no regional limitations, this end was inevitable. Financial restrictions cannot fix the problem.
The bosman ruling was to do with being able to move at the end of their contract without a transfer fee and has nothing to do with country of origin.
@@TopeA8 The Premier League was never anything like what the Saudi league currently is. The Saudi league is spending far more money than it generates, funded by the State. The Premier League spent rather conservatively pre-Abramovich. Things were a little crazy 2005-2010, but since then teams again are spending broadly in line with revenues, notwithstanding Chelsea's recent splurge. I'm also not sure what you mean by "they say that true football is in Europe". I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say that, however it is true that European teams, and arguably the leagues, are the best in terms of the quality of players. I agree that South American players, and by extension the leagues in which they developed, have a significant impact on the quality of European football. It is also true that, yes, money is a key factor in why players move from South American leagues to European leagues. However, there is more money because the quality is better. And then, the quality is better because there is more money. It's cyclical, and something that will be hard to break, until South American leagues can find a way to encourage their players to stay, and convince the world that the football is worth watching. It is sad that football has turned into a money machine, and plenty of English people are turning away from the Premier League due to the depressing commercialisation of the game. There is less emphasis on the "local fan", with astronomical ticket prices only affordable to wealthy tourists. However, European football as a whole, and particularly the Premier League, remains the best in terms of the quality and excitement.
@luis I fail to see your point. The EU has freedom of movement, and I never could see how football could have a rule that contravened the law. Bosman proved that in court. Also, big clubs like Real, Bayern, Ajax, monopolised local talent at the expense of smaller teams. The English premier league is no different, it is just a business like any other.
Another component that wasn't mentioned here is UEFA's Orwellianly-named Financial Fair Play system, which allows the big teams to spend as much money as they want while prohibiting smaller teams from making modest investments to improve themselves. The latest Champions League final featured Manchester City against Inter Milan, with the former having a payroll that was like a gazillion times that of the latter. But over the summer it was Inter who had to sell off half of their team to stay in the good graces of FFP. FFP paradoxically claims that Inter had an unfair advantage by having a payroll that was only one gazillionth of City's, rather that a two-gazillionth. This is insane. This is an even bigger positive feedback loop than the winners getting more attention. What European football needs is the opposite, namely a salary cap system like they have in American sports. This would disperse the top players and make everything more competitive. Reinstating the traditional foreign player restrictions would also help a lot.
Part of this is an issue with Serie A not UEFA, the PL splits the TV revenue relatively equally so last season the PL winner gets $210m in PL tv revenue and the team in 20th place gets $159m which works out bottom place getting 25% than the winner. in Serie a the winner gets $95m and 20th place in the league gets $32m which is 70% less tv revenue. In terms of payroll, the top 3 teams by payroll last season were PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona the PL teams have never paid salaries anywhere near the levels that have been done in Spain or France Ronaldo was the highest paid PL star in history is Ronaldo on £500k per week and that was less than half his Madrid salary, which was less than half what Barca were paying Messi...
If you're going to talk about completely changing the way a far more successful sport operates you should at least familiarise yourself with some basic facts. In the latest accounts, Inter Milan's wage bill was £214m (11th highest in europe) whilst City's was £353m (6th highest). There's a gap but not quite "gazillions". Considering Inter play in a much smaller league there's no wonder they're in FFP trouble.
FFP is fine if they actually implemented it, the problem is they don't. There's no way Man City has more income than global brands like Real Madrid, Man United, Liverpool, therefore it should be impossible to spend more than those clubs. The problem is Man City fudges their books to make it appear they have more income when in reality that money is injection from United Arab Emirates.
@@DarthQueefious its insane the gap from top league to 3rd ranked league is so high, my team Porto play in the 7th ranked league and get 1/10th if we are champions than what a 20th place premier league team gets, its insane the amount of money that the epl has
The EPL definitely needs a cap restriction . I have to say its funny hearing the Italians and Spanish giants complaining . Was great when AC , Real and Barca ruled by the checkbook in the 90s ,00s .
Love the video as an EPL fan from Liverpool! Just a quick note, 97 fans perished at Hillsborough in 1989. A man suffered life altering injuries that ultimately lead to his death a few years back. This is something we in Liverpool never forget and always respect, no matter who's teams colours you wear
As someone from Sheffield (who lives just down the road from Hillsborough Stadium) it's really impressive how you're able to take so many big topics around English Football and it's history and apply the deserved nuance to them - all whilst keeping the video to less than 15 minutes! Looking forward to future vids already.
Yeah that's great, but he really should have checked what actually happened and how many people lost their lives due to the incompetence of the police, who then lied and the cover up began. JFT97 YNWA
No way! I just finished studying in sheffield and that's where I used to live! Did you live near Upperthorpe?
*do
@@JammersDaEagle83he said it happened due to bad crowd control which is obviously the police’s job
@@dylanmurphy9389 yes he did say that, he also mentioned poor stadium design wwhich is true, but also he said that it "caused the fans to stampede" which isn't true, we were CRUSHED due to police putting 80% of the fans in the centre in caged pens, while the other two sides were near empty! He also said that 96 people lost their lives, a other falsehood that involved the now uncovered cover up as there were 97 people who went to a football game and didn't come home! If you're going to make the effort to make this type of video then fact check the history is all I'm saying. JFT97 YNWA
IMMEDIATELY became a member. This channel is amazing, and it's just the beginning. Congratulations Sam!
thanks cleo!!!
Eyy my favourite optimist in tha house!!
Okey this channel is gonna be epic some might say Huge...if true
Cleo please do another video. This Nigerian brother can't go any longer without your optimistic journalism.😅
ok
I’d just like to say on behalf of everyone how much this video is appreciated. The amount of editing and research that went into this must have taken a long time. It deserves 10x the amount of views and it reminds me of something I would see on Netflix or tv. Great work!
State-owned/subsidized clubs, like City & Newcastle, r like Chinese-state-owned/subsidized companies who rigged the market against domestic producers for long🤏British politicians MUST intervene to put limit on this madness😒
I'm in my late 50's and I remember all of the factors, post-Heysel and post-Hillsborough that fed into the successful launch of the Premier League. A major factor that you have completely missed from this analysis is the 1990 World Cup in Italy when England made it to the semi-finals and Paul Gascoigne became a hugely popular national figure. It breathed new life into public interest in football and convinced investors that the Premier League was a viable plan.
Totally agree mate. I am Italian and always said, that was the last best English team who put the shirt on with pride. Today it's not tge sane. Too much money and foriegners in the PL. Sad but true.
The Sky deal was the beginning of the end for me,it's all the money nowadays
you are correct@@Happy-wb8gi
same here@@jeffsparey9585
State-owned/subsidized clubs, like City & Newcastle, r like Chinese-state-owned/subsidized companies who rigged the market against domestic producers for long🤏British politicians MUST intervene to limit on this madness😒
Good stuff! As a European, I'm fascinated by how big college sports are in the US. The size of the stadiums, the facilities, the fanbases are mind blowing. But there's also the business side of it and how players can't earn money whilst being a student athlete. Would love to see a video about this 😄
All athletes have NIL deals middle school, and high school kids are starting to make $100,000.
South Park made a good episode on student athletes and the college sports system, effectively comparing it to the slave trade.
yeah id love to see that too
They can make money now, actually many are making millions before even entering college
Actually within the last couple years it has become legal for college athletes to take sponsorships and brand deals
Leagues from smaller countries like The Netherlands, Portugal etc have been struggling with this for years. But now the power imbalance is even affecting the other top four leagues. The power imbalance has slowly been ruining football for the past 25 years or so
The talent drain from smaller leagues really sucks, promising talents can't even stay a full season in the lower leagues. In Belgium we produce a lot of talent and have a policy of not wasting any talent and they get snatched by the premier league within a few months.
@@LuffyL-ch1ku same here in Portugal We lost Diaz, Vieira and Vitinha so fast its unreal
It's even worse in the very small Eastern leagues, with those countries bring even poorer, they are being signed up almost in bulk before they've even shown enough talent. Lots are given U21 contracts and never even make it with the club they sign for
Well football is English the football league is stronger than most european leagues
@@user-cc3ek6rc4e Not the strongest through English talent though.
0:07: You have Chelsea's location incorrect on the map. It is 1 mile to the east of Fulham, which is in the correct positron.
Great first episode! 🎉 but there’s issues with sound 🙈 it’s a bit hard to hear interview and other sounds, while the voiceover is loud and clear. Hope that it gets better and can’t wait for next episode 👍
As an English Chelsea supporter who grew up during this period of the last 20 years, I can really relate to this story. My grandad tried to warn me that all this money was dangerous to the sport when I was an excited kid who wanted his team to win. Turns out he was right. Well done.
Why is it dangerous though ? When Italy was the richest league with all the best players it was not a problem . When it was Spain it was not a problem. Europeans just don’t like that English football is the best .
@@jake-wq2vb Italian and Spanish clubs never outspent the other 4 leagues combined. No league has ever reached such financial dominance as permier league has now.
@@jake-wq2vb Spain and Italy did it by getting a competitive advantage via good talent scouting and refining tactics. The Premier League did it by throwing a bunch of money at the wall and hope it sticks. No other clubs can afford to blow 100 Million on players that turned out to be not good enough for the first squad and be fine. Most clubs outside of the Premier League can't even afford the 100 Million in the first place.
@@philz.1521how is signing zidane beckham Roberto Carlos R9 cr7 figo owen and McMahon good cheap scouting lol
@@L1am21 they had these signings after they already had success. The reason they got to spend that money is mostly through their own net income. Unlike Chelsea and ManCity who spend money they never earned themselves.
As a football fan from Hannover, Germany, I'm just so glad the Bundesliga didn't make the same mistake of letting in huge investors (yet...). Even though we might lose out to big money and fall short of premier league clubs, we still have what football is ment to be: A sport owned by the fans. Down to the third division, we have some of the most passionate fans in europe. German clubs who are largely owned by investors or corporations are hated by almost all german football fans. Big investors are ruining our sport and most people in Germany feel that way. I know it might seem irrational at first, but really football means more to us than just winning. It's hard to explain, but football is a part of our culture and we won't let investors take it away from us.
As a lower league english football fan, the premier league clubs are certainly losing that soul of their clubs but look into the second div all the way down to the 5th or 6th tier and you have amazing community based clubs
A lot of English PL fans feel that way, as far as I know. But their stupidity and hatred towards other clubs makes them overlook the long term damage these owners will cause. I have absolutely no sympathy for English football fans. They turn a blind eye to everything for the sake of a win - cheating, corruption and loss of heritage.
@@L.C.Sweeneylol what
Yea,thats all well and peachy,but you have much bigger problem in Bundeslegue…your league is the most uncompetetive in Europe,your overseas tv revenue is stagnant because who would watch Bayern wining it over and over again…
@@martinzurko2762 yet, Bayern have won more champions than many Petro dollar premier clubs, money Bayern create from football not from selling the club. Problems? All clubs have them. Some (premier league clubs) are allowed to bury them with money coming from who knows where. Got it?
That was an incredibly fascinating and well done video. I'm definitely subscribed and here to stay. I love the mingling of geopolitics with sports especially, and I think it made it incredibly easy to follow and understand for people who aren't already sports fans. I would love to see more videos in the same vein as this one, especially touching on FIFA's domination and institutional corruption.
Sam really amazing content. I would like to see more unusual and out of mainstream sports, and also specific stories and events that happened related to sports, like some opics below: 1. PBR - Bull Riding (How big is and what is the performance behind these high perform athletes) 2. Olympics during War Time (How political decision are exposed and battled inside sports) 3. The historical relation between sports popularity and its talent, does talent really exist or is caused by the environment?
I think two important contexts are needed to be added: 1. English clubs were dominating Europe during the late 70s and early 80s up until their ban in European competitions due to Heysel. English fans saw this an injustice (conspiracy) against English football by UEFA, and makes the justification of having the prem as the top league due to this ("if we haven't been banned in Europe, we would have been number 1") 2. There was a domestic league in Europe that is comparable to today's prem (and is a kind of a superleague) and that is the Serie A in the 1990s. They're kind of like the prem today due to how the big clubs (seven sisters like inter, milan, juve, lazio, roma, parma, fiorentina) gets all the the best players in the world, similar to prem today. Hell even Bournemouth size clubs there like Brescia and Bari can get players from clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid. I mentioned this because of a lot of similarities between it and the premier league today, and btw it is probably much more popular than the premier league in England itself during the 90s (Gazzetta Football Italia for instance). As well, this was also the often the justification for the current situation by prem/English fans. Since serie A in the 90s did it, why couldn't they as well?
Yes i knew that something similar happened before, just couldn't remember the name of the league (also provided way more context then i could have.
Yugoslav wars also happened which broke Yugoslav's very strong league and part of the best players left to join Italian Clubs which added to the Rising Italian dominance of their league in the 90s, it was like 2 Leagues combining
It was the case during the 2000s and early 2010’s aswell with la liga. Real Madrid during the ‘galacticos’ era literally went out of their way to buy the best player in the world every transfer window, breaking the bank everytime, it’s a natural cycle of life within football. Just this time, it’s involving sums of cash no one could have dreamt of.
I also think that there was more diversity in the semi finals because the European cup was only open to league champions (and the winners of the European Cup). If top countries were allowed to enter four teams like in the Champions League now, I think it would have been dominated even more by England and the other big leagues.
There is a big difference between the PL of today to the Serie A of the 90s. Those Serie A clubs in the 90s were owned by rich Italian business men who overspent to chase the dream like Blackburn in the 90s & Leeds in early 2000s. They were not owned by a Foreign State like Newcastle or Man City. Lazio, Napoli, Fiorentina & Parma ended up going bankrupt. The money eventually dried up for AC Milan, Inter & Roma. Juventus had to deal with the consequences of Calciopoli. I think Paul Gascoigne transfer history in 90s highlights how different football was and how it's changed. England's number 1 midfielder leaves Tottenham for Lazio and then goes to Rangers at the age of 28. I can't see something like that happening in today's football.
Well done, I love the format! As a Canadian and avid Hockey fan, Id love a story done about why no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since Montreal did in 1993.
Most Canadians play on American teams. More money.
I don't fully understand Hockey every Canadian I know tells me that the Maple Leaf's are the biggest club in Hockey yet they haven't won the Stanley Cup since the 60's. What's that all about?
Are you serious ? I don't watch hockey at all but I figured it was like the leafs vs the habs at the top
I was just thinking about this yesterday! Would be a good one
A question pretty much every Canadian is asking .... WTF is up with no wins since 93 ??
Loved this! As someone who follows ameatuer sport in Ireland I would love a video on the most popular amateur sports worldwide - how they are run, gameplay, challenges, etc.
Great work; I'm not a football fan, but this is very intresting! A little bit dissapointing that the Heizeldrama wasn't mentioned in the intro. I looking forward for the new vids.
This channel is what we’ve all been hoping for…
I agree mate
Best said
What England does now was Italy between 1985-2000 and Barca, Real and Bayern between 2000-2018.
Facts.
No not for me why am I here I am questioning reality Do we live in a matrix Why am I even commenting Are we being controlled Who's controlling us Are the controllers good If they're good then why do bad things happen Are we in a simulation
Absolutely wonderful video on a very delicate topic. Here in Europe, many have called football as it used to be, dead. “Our football”, meaning the game we've all played and watched growing up, is no more. It's been completely changed by rampant foreign investment, corruption, greed, and as of most recently, oil money.
Speaking of oil money, I can't wait to see Newcastle slowly become the new PSG. When you have a foreign nation like Saudi Arabia as sugar daddy, that's like fantasy football
@@charlietran7182 Premier league = Oil league
Yea but if money could buy you the league, what happened to psg?
@withindreams You have said what's on my mind. And it's quite sad.
😂🎉 Doesn't matter, at least with the Camel and Burger superleagues football is going to disappear from Europe altogether in the next 10 years 😂
Great video. It is like this now in American College Football where there are two conferences with huge TV contracts dominating the sport.
you missed one of the key points on how the broadcast right is so expensive now: EPL did so well in promoting their league in asia, especially south east asia, by offering them a cheap package back in the 2000s.
Some bits may have been missed. 1. It's in English and if you speak two languages one of them is English. So all the best commentators speak it and the managers and players speak it too. It's easy for people in America, China, India and Europe to get into. 2. It plays a popular kind of football. Compared to the other large league in europe English football is agressive and physical, compared to defensive and phsysical in germany, defensive and technical in italy and offensiv and technical in spain .This is the easiest kind of fooball to get into. 3. The Taylor report after those tragedies mandated that english teams rebuild their stadiums, effectively gentrifying them and making them attractive places for middle class families opening that market up early and, it make the dense english square stadium the norm, while simply works much better on tv than do bowl stadiums or stadiums with running tracks. 4. With the advent of cable tv and streaming it has become easier and simpler for people to buy access to football on tv all over the world. 5. The flatter money distribution makes games against the teams in the lower half of the table still be dangerous for the big teams. This makes english football easy to access for outsiders and semi-enthusiastic fans and this makes the sport itself easier to sell. This means that english football had an early advantage in money which they capitalized on to build the better prospect. Right now if you want to think of yourself as a big club you need to be in the Premier League or the Champions League or you don't have enough cash to keep the good players you develop yourself, much less buy good players on other teams.
The English speaking aspect makes a whole lot of sense.
They could add luxury taxes to transfers and give that to struggling leagues.
I would say point number 4 holds 90% of the weight in this arguement. It still baffles me how competitive the PL is compared to other leagues. On any given day a giant like Man City can be beaten by a lower league team
I don't think English has much to do with anything, if you're in China you are watching in Chinese but you are watching a full stadium for Fulham vs Westham while a half empty stadium for Getafe vs Rayo Vulcano, by prioritizing the big teams Italy and Spain destroyed their leagues.
One point - German football isn't defensively focused, its all about counter attacks. We all know how famous German football is for gegenpressing, stupidly high lines and quick counter attacking play
This channel is going to skyrocket to immense success in no time. Outstanding quality. Excited for the future, videos like this are well needed. Interesting and informative for both sports fans, and for people who have never even seen a match. Amazing job!
This documentary made it sound like as if the english clubs investments really paid off, when in fact it really didn't. In the past 10 years english clubs won the champions league only 3x (Germany 1x, Spain 6x) and Chelsea finished the league in Rank 12 after spending the record breaking 300+ million €. Paris spent billions and has yet to win anything in europe, having been quite unsuccessful. The greatest success the investors had, was to green wash their image in England, which is also an important reason why they are investing such large sums in England. You should ask someone from London how they feel about the russian Oligarch Roman Abramovic and then compare to the opinion from people anywhere else in the world. Chelsea fans couldn't understand why that corrupt Oligarch was forced to sell the club after Russia attacked Ukraine. Same goes for the dictators from the middle east that own clubs in England. You wouldn't hear criticism about their crimes against humanity from any english football fan, because they were essentially bribed. I'm incredibly happy for every club with any of these criminal investors that fail, always cheering on the underdog that respects the financial and ethical fairplay.
Genuinly the most well made infographic video I have seen in a long, long time. Well done! Subscribed!
You're exageratting it a bit. They have an advantage, and if unchecked it will get worse but PsG are also owned by sheikhs and spend huge money. Madrid have long had a history of crazy spending on high earning players. Also non-English clubs are still very competitive in the Champions League, often beating their English rivals. The problem of course is that it's a free for all. If people want a more evenly divided sport, they'll have to start looking at American systems of maintaining parity, rather than the free for all it is now.
Great first episode! As for sports here are some potential topics: 1. The Saudi take over of golf 2. Doping in Track and Field 3. The conflict between the NBA and the Big 3 league (Ice Cube has accused the NBA of trying to stop the BIG 3 league). 4. The business of NCAA sports and their recruiting 5. The NBA and China 6. How the Saudis are trying to take over Tennis.
7. The Saudis football league signing all the top soccer players from Europe.
8. Corrupt judges in boxing 9. Suspension of Russian athletes due to doping
Fifa World Cup scandal. Stadiums and the renovation plans for the future and how they adapt to stay ahead. Player agents and what they do in football. (Maybe work with The Athletic)
1 and 6 could be condensed into Saudi sportswashing and why.
people are so mad at the saudis when then west did it for hundrets of years already. are we mad because they take our proven system and use it for themselves?
What amazes me with channel like yours is that in 24 years of life I was at best mildly concerned by football and even then only ever during World Cups, which as a french person was a big event (bar 2010). But well done documentaries like those, that dive deeper into that very complex world makes me appreciate it more, to the point I even started checking out results and news. Well done
Loved this video! I wonder whether you should include your pov on what should be done about this issue then
A fan of Johnny and the channel! Immediately subscribed! What better way than football to get things started! Hope you continue your focus on the PL and football overall!
I would love to see the video on "West Indies Cricket". How strong they were and how the t20 franchise leagues destroyed their cricket.
i literally just asked for the same thing
This is so wrong ! West Indies were terrible even before the T20 League's arrived . They actually won 2 WC's after the advent of T20 Leagues
i hope the same happens in India so finally other atheltes and sports can shine this 8 team sports need to be eradicated
West Indies cricket was in decline before the advent of T20 cricket but T20 cricket effectively finished it off.
Was not expecting an association football video to start Search Party off. Now I need an English Premiership Rugby video regarding the downsizing of the league due to 3 teams losing funds.
NOT JUST THE ENGLISH ONE BUT RUGBY IN GENERAL, THE SPORT HAS BEEN STAGNATING OVER THE YEARS. THEY HAVE NO PLANS TO GROW THE SPORT TO HAVE MORE COUNTRIES IN THEIR WORLDCUP FOR INSTANCE
@@newbiz8919 That is very true. But I was thinking small before going big like that. Having the Rugby World Cup with only 20 teams is sad and then there is the subject of the World League starting in 2026 locking out the top 10 teams until 2030 from everyone else, pretty much killing international rugby for developing programs like Georgia, Uruguay, Chile, Romania and others.
rugby's on the list 👀
The combination of interviews and illustrations is just amazing! Spectacular!
Love the graphics, makes it so much easier to follow and visualise the story.
I would love to see a story about the Saudi Arabian football league in its impact that it’s having on sports washing through all the new high-end talent they’re bringing in
v interested to see how this Mbappé situation shakes out 👀
@@Search-Party It will push the EPL into spending more to keep the players they have lured away from the rest of Europe and South America.
@@Search-Party true, glad I’ve joined the channel, good luck 👍
Man City and psg began this trend 😂
@@mymemories925city is not psg you fool. They win ucl
I think you guys could tell the story about Formula 1's travels and spending like this very well, with their focus on 2030 net-neutral emissions, the current way they operate is unsustainable, and at some points during the season downright unessesary. Loved the video, keep em coming! ❤
No pressure @CleoAbram
Also women's f1 is an interesting topic
The way F1 operates now is finally sustainable with the cost cap, its not environmentally sustainable but neither is any form of entertainment even soccer
@@shems53Isnt F1 open though
@@mikko3Yeah the environment part is gonna hurt F1 in the long run
Well done, great overview, looking forward to your next episodes. I was dissapointed you concentrated on just the wealthy clubs without at least a mention of smaller newcomers like Luton (COYH) who have gained promotion despite having very limited cash available. But i am biased 😀
What an excellent video, bravo! since you will be covering sports, I would for you to cover the transfer window; how players are bought and sold
This video is so well made, so polished! The team behind this channel will continue to do great work. To the degree that I am jealous for not being a part of it!
As an avid football fan, its great to see European Football being covered by an American Journalist. There's so many more stories worth telling in football! The mad obsession with football in less popular leagues such as in South America, Eastern Europe, certain parts of India and Asia, etc is a great topic. Would also be interesting to have a story on the recent rise of Women's football and the challenges it still faces.
I am very happy for your work and look forward to seeing all your new videos on this channel. Thank you very much
Bro the edits and research is clean!!! I am in awe 🙌 ❤. Its a no-brainer subscribing
One thing that can be pointed out here is that when it comes to other Leagues (apart from EPL), they don't have too many English broadcasters (with a few exceptions). It's also the time zone difference that would matter here. Most of the EPL matches for me (India) happen around dinner time which is comfortable. La Liga, Ligue 1 matches happen late night (12 - 3 am). EPL also has better marketing and advertising in India compared to the other leagues. But this is a good video. Keep it up :)
Premier League time time differences are also pretty accessible for the east coast of the United States.
They are ultra nationalists who broadcast in their native languages,I'm not gonna get into French football and listen to french commentary,they have a long way to go before they compete
I would love for you to cover how the Australian a-league tried a similar revamp that premier league did and on the eyes of most fans have failed. We still have had riots and hoolinganism as recent as this year with mass protests and pitch invasions
@@Aquafyre A few months ago. One of the players got attacked. It was all over the news for days.
@@Aquafyreit’s not a competition lol
You should see the balkan hooligans or latin americans hooligans
Hi, absolutely loved the video and look forward to more from this channel. One thing I would like to add is that I feel you forgot to mention one of the biggest reasons as to what makes the premier league the richest and biggest in the world and that’s competition. I feel like the sport of football at the end of the day boils down to competitiveness. Leagues such as the German league, La Liga, Ligue 1 have virtually no competition because those leagues are structured in ways which would mean that only a couple of teams would ever even have the chance of winning a title or a trophy. What makes the premier league so entertaining to watch is that every year we get to see new and extremely entertaining underdog and rags to riches stories, hell I believe the entire reason why the premier league is so successful is because of such stories. Investors can come in and buy worser clubs with virtually no hopes of winning anything and take them to the top, along with their fans ie City, Chelsea, Newcastle etc. Furthermore, clubs like brighton and southampton can regularly compete for trophies by selling talent they spotted for hundreds of millions of dollars, helping them continue to write their fairytale for their fans after being promoted. I feel this does not exist in any other league in the world, this feeling of competition, of unexpectedness and of excitement is what separates the PL from leagues such as bundesliga where it is a given that Bayern will win the title before the league even starts. I believe the ability to monopolize a league like that and almost have absolutely 0 competition is what is more harmful than promoting a system where any small fan of any small team can one day hope to win it all and that something like that is actually possible. That is what makes the PL special to me and that’s the reason why it is such a good product to the world as a whole. It provides the highest quality of football with the most excitement and the highest level of competition in world football, hence making it attractive for investors and fans alike as any well run product should do😊
The only change that could ever possibly challenge the premier league would be mini “super leagues” for ex the Netherlands and Belgium combining their leagues (which has been proposed many times), the Nordic leagues have also looked into this. As mentioned in the video, sometimes the tv deals are just poorly negotiated, and countries like Scotland are way underselling their product (not to say they’d come anywhere close to the English deals) so it’s hard to say if countries like Spain and Germany are maximizing their marketing.
It would be nice to see a Benelux league and a Scandinavian league, the Balkan league (already in basketball)...
Great first video! I'd really like if you could also make a video about how the Saudi Arabian money are deeply influencing European football (from a cultural/ ethical point of view too)! This is a recently new but quite discussed topic that I think many people would be interested in
🫡 great idea
Why limit it to just Saudi Arabia? Qatar and the UAE are having the same kinds of influences in Europe and beyond, such as of course the most recent World Cup. If you want to narrow in on Saudi Arabia, their recent smash and grab on American golf would be a good topic.
@slimcourage901 In this football transfer window a lot of players (some still not too old) are going to the Saudi League, which is offering a tremendous amount of money to both clubs and players, like never before. They are prepared to offer 1 billion to Mbappe for just 2 years. All these clubs which are buying are owned by the State Fund (PIF), so is even more a particular scenario. Yeah in the past were already some players going to Qatar and other countries but they were all finished players
@@leonardomazzoni1824 My mistake, I thought you were referring to investments in clubs and stadiums in Europe, not their own super league development, which I haven't heard too much about (not a big follower of the sport). Between this and LIV Golf, looks like a pattern's emerging!
I may be jumping the gun and commenting this too early - but Germany and Spain only put measures in after some of their leading clubs nearly crashed out of existence be ause of reckless spending. For years Spanish teams held the world transfer records and actually still do
Well done mate. You done a great job. Plus you never called it “Soccer” which is MAJOR points for Brits. Topics: *The Disrupters- iconic leaders in a sport who totally changed the game. Bernie Ecclestone F1, Arsene Wenger Football, Dana White UFC etc *Legends-Legends of the game in each sports *Off the Field-Looking at the business side of each sport. TV rights, sponsorship, merchandise, ticket sales, image rights, transfers etc. All the best from London. Like and subscribed
The fact this is your first video is insane, this a million subscriber level quality video
What an amazing insight. I would love to see a story about how baseball has spread internationally, the up rise of popularity on island nations. Another topic to explore is would be one of the worlds longest played sports, Wrestling, Calcio Storico, or Mesoamerican ballgame. I love what you do and how you present the imagery.
There's a couple of other changes in football that could have been included as part of this too. You mention the Champions League originally being a tournament where the champions of each country in Europe compete, however in nineties this was changed. Now the third best clubs in countries like England and Spain automatically qualify whereas the champions of countries like Romania must enter a preliminary qualifying tournament where they will compete against champions of other smaller nations and the fourth best clubs in nations like England and Spain. Nowadays it's rare you'd even see a Romanian or Hungarian team in the Champions League. Secondly in England in the 2010's the authorities introduced what they call the Elite Player Performance Plan. The idea of this was to channel more promising youngsters into the academies of the top teams. Ostensibly this was to make the national team more competitive, suggesting that smaller clubs were keeping young players from realising their potential. It makes it easier and cheaper for the big clubs to poach the best young players from everyone else and has led to a number of smaller clubs closing down their academies as they're too expensive to run when they can't do anything to prevent their best assets being hoovered up by big clubs for negligible transfer fees. There are a number of smaller clubs who had made it their business model to invest in the academy and bring through talented players who they could then sell on and earn money to invest into the senior squad or back into the youth system. They can't afford to do this any more and are stuck with well developed academies that are expensive to run and no longer profitable. It has also led to the big clubs' academies becoming overcrowded and players who haven't burst onto the professional scene by 17 or 18 risk just disappearing into obscurity, playing in non-competitive youth tournaments until they're eventually released at 23 or 24 years old lacking experience of competitive football and struggling to adapt well enough to forge a career at smaller clubs (not to mention having excessive wage demands because the big clubs were paying them way more than smaller clubs can afford to pay even their best players).
The academy problem is real.
The English Academy system was created by Howard Wilkinson and is based on the French model.
The 4th place team in the EPL automatically goes to the Group Stage of the UCL, 5th automatically to the Group Stage of the UEL, and 6th automatically to the Group Stage of the UECL.
wow, great video fella. it cannot be understate how important the revenue split for broadcasting rights.
Beautiful video!!! I love it, event the edit of the video it’s perfect!
When Real Madrid and Barcelona were outbidding other clubs with obscene transfer fees it was alright while rest of the clubs in La Liga couldn't even afford to pay their players, but now that EPL has found trickle down formula to help even low division clubs outbid some top teams in Europe, it has become a problem.
Indeed and they were getting very favorable bank loans for this back in the days. So actually also "financial dope". But I hope there will come strict rules that will make the European competitions fairer and more enjoyable to watch again.
Yep Barcelona & Real Madrid are massive hypocrites
Beautiful infographic animations here guys. You’ve made understanding complex systems, like the flow of money in European football, easier for my brain to comprehend. It would be great to see something like this show the flow of capital on a global scale. A sort of money map of the globe. Keep up the fantastic work.
Great work, some of the voices need to be higher in the audio track 👍
wonderful Video ! as a junior player scout, I love to see more football videos like this. Cheers and thanks for such a great content
As a fan of the Premier League this is by far the most depressing part of our game.
So excited to see more from this channel! Please make videos abt F1, maybe about the recent seasons, like the 2021 season and the 2022 costcap breach 😬
1:04 Was the other way around in the 90s Italian clubs were spending crazy amounts of money, breaking transfer records almost every few seasons.
Let me get this straight: England had better split of the TV rights revenues that boosted competition, that increased interest, that increased tv contract price. On the other side, less regulation increased investment potential. => well done, nice business case
Good job to everyone at search party, excellent first video, as a fan of a club in England (Sheffield Wednesday) outside of the PL we recently fell fowl of over spending trying to get in, as an all round lover of football, seeing the success of the PL is both great and disappointing as it’s definitely having a departmental affect to the rest of Europe. Looking forward to what you do next
Very informative indeed. I'm from the Philippines and I now have a far better understanding of how European Football works with this video . God speed to the whole team😊
Sam!!!! I just copied a comment I left a few minutes ago on Johnny's newest vid so I'll leavit here too - your work on Atlas was the best stuff Vox ever produced and I greatly anticipated and appreciated every Atlas video. I can't wait to see what you do here. The protegee succeeds the mentor then leaves to join with the old mentor. I'm sure you'll do great work here too. Instant subscibription
Great start so far for the channel. Can't wait for new vids. I have a sports related vidéo idea: as a canadian, nhl is all over media. That is far from being the case in the US. I'd like a video that shows the power of American media over the money cycle of the nhl vs other American sports.
I'm an American who rarely watches soccer (football), yet this video had me completely interested from start to finish. Nice work!
Good video. One thing I would say is including Manchester United in the grouping of clubs bought buy rich foreign owners who pumped money in to them is a bit inaccurate as the owners really haven't, they've only taken money out of the club.
Excellent video! Already I can't wait for the next one. This was a really coherent explanation of how English football is increasingly becoming putty in the hands of ultra-rich owners from abroad, and the trend that has created of pricing out other European clubs. As a Fulham fan this puts into words something I have long been aware of, and a video on the subject was just what I needed to watch!
As a massive football ("soccer") fan... go Notts County... this was great. Found this channel via Johnny Harris, looking forward to more videos to come, sport or not. Cheers With the recent new changes that new owners want to make, I hope one of them sees this and realizes that a rising tide raises all ships.
Isn't 'massive football' fan and Notts county a bit of a stretch
This was great! Can you do an episode on College sports and all the schools switching conferences? Also how players are starting to get paid through NIL deals..
I would love to see a similar in-depth subject matter video regarding Cricket and the IPL if possible.
Great job Sam and team! Looking forward to following your stories.
Following this up with a deep dive into what's going on with the Saudi Pro League, especially with the offer they've made for Mbappe, seems like a great second video idea if you want to stick with football. Keep up the good work with this new venture Sam. Subscribed.
39 people died at the Heysel stadium in Brussels Belgium. Only one English club was involved Liverpool. The Hillsborough disaster was partly caused by fences that were put up to stop fighting and pitch invasions,as well as police mistakes and a rush to get in the ground at the Leppings lane end (not to miss the match). Many Liverpool fans did their best to rescue people that day, as the emergency services weren't deployed as well as they could have been.
it would be cool to delve deeper into sports and their relationship with/within the olympics such as - gymnastics, synchronised swimming, skateboarding. and also Formula 1
In the Champions’ League this year, Serie A had three teams in quarters, two in semis and one in final (and it was close!). We could’ve had three in semis and an all-Italian final. That said, I can see how difficult it must be to compete with English clubs. What is more appalling is that you’d scarcely believe it possible wages could be any higher, but, as a mate said to me, the recent Saudi purge could force European teams to remove financial cap. To think that Premier League clubs were holding back financially…
What the video also failed to mention was this spending started in Italy before England. SERIE A accumulating the best players in the 90s.
@@Guttlegob And when Real Madrid assemble their Galacticos for the nth time it isn't ruining football. Go figure.
Yeh but looking at one year on its own is sufficient data. You need to look at the last 10-15 years and the English clubs get deeper into the tournament more than any other country.
@@Guttlegobyeh but what we’re seeing now (teams like Bournemouth etc spending £40million on players has never happened before). In Italy in the 90’s it was the top clubs that spent big
@@Geokinkladzeyeh but in Spain it’s only a couple of clubs. In England it’s the entire division that is causing this massive inflation.
I'm from Singapore & have been supporting Tottenham since 1994. Love how you cover this topic. Indeed, the EPL is the Super League, for better or worse. Hope to see more of such videos!
U poor bastard
I was wondering why the voice and presentation was so familiar. Happy to join this new journey. Also, huge respect for having the decency to call the game by its rightful name.
LOVE the channel, amazing content so far. Here's an idea for a video down the line, I think it would be a perfect fit thematically for you: the rise of a small Serbian club called TSC Backa Topola.
would love to see a video on corruption within UK councils. ik this may seem like a small story, but its huge and no one talks about it. Jo negrini personally bankcrupted two councils, and racked up more than £1 billions of debt, while embezzeling about £1 mil for her own personal gain
As someone who loves watching football, mainly premier league and La Liga football, this video exceeded expectations. Nicely done, guys!
This was excellent, the only nit-pick thing I'd say is the part at 4:50 almost suggests the Emirates was built when it became the Premier League. It wasn't until 2006, so would have been better to use an earlier example. But still excellent video.
A beautifully researched and presented documentary.
Such a high quality video, extremely well made! Congratulations!
Let’s not forget LA Liga and Spain dominated European/global football for a decade between 2008 to 2018…..
Not La Liga, just two clubs
How did you make the animations? I like them.
Great content !! I have already subscribed! looking forward to new video
Incredible work! Became a member and am way excited to see all of the stories you'll be telling.
Awesome, thank you!
as a epl fan the biggest mistakes other leagues made back in the 90s and early 2000s was to make their tv deals uneven so only the top2/3 teams benefitted cause think about it like this there is no way you can tell me west ham can go and buy paqueta for 50 mil while others in europe can barely afford to offer that
Spain gave Real and Barca all the money regardless where they finished because they brought in the most views, the premiere league was fair and the money was split well between all clubs with more for the position finished which is why the relegation battle are also interesting because there is a lot of money to lose by being relegated
@@munaali840 they bought in views yh but that's because they had the biggest superstars look now el classico doesn't even have that appeal anymore giving like 80% of the money to only two out of twenty teams in your league will dilute the quality so bad to a point their clubs don't even bother to bid for superstars anymore cause they know the prem clubs or a oil backed club like psg can just go band for band with them
I’m late to the party but great vide with good speakers. I’m definitely gonna watch more of your content
Great video! I'm interested to learn about the difference between the CFL and NFL. As a Canadian its odd to me how revered the NFL is while in Canada I'm sure I've seen articles of CFL players needing a second job in the off season. Why so different?
I'd like to assume that CFL players just aren't paid nearly as much as athletes in the NFL and as a result many of the CFL players try to find a second job in their offseason. There's likely some other factors as to why the two leagues seem so different.
A comparison can be made with the Australian Football League, which has a strict salary cap and a draft (similar to the NBA), ensuring the weakest teams have 1st picks for the best young talent. It has been shown to work, as the league is more competitive than ever and viewership is the highest for any domestic sports league per capita. Possible video idea?
Relegation system is more entertaining
Basically the NA sports system. Hockey and NFL have caps and drafts. You can’t buy a cup, and it’s very hard for a team to keep winning year after year. Much better system, albeit most players only make a few million a year, the superstars a bit more.
@@56Circular Finals is more entertaining than just having a home & away season