Fantasy football: the Americanisation of the beautiful game

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered panic across the world, not least for the Ukrainian people. Refugees fled to neighbouring countries while many nations placed sanctions on Russian businesses.

One of the businesses affected by these sanctions was Chelsea Football Club, formerly owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. In May 2022, the Roman empire fell at Stamford Bridge to make way for the Todd Boehly era.

Like many English football fans, I was initially quite sceptical of American businessman Todd Boehly’s arrival to my football club. American ownership in the Premier League is often frowned upon. Just take a look at the ‘Glazers Out’ and ‘Kroenke Out’ protests outside of Old Trafford and The Emirates respectively. What was this avaricious American going to do?

Well, he’s done quite a bit. Following the £4.25 billion takeover of Chelsea by the Ted Boehly-led consortium, they spent over £250 million in the summer transfer window (more than any other Premier League club). They also sacked the manager, Thomas Tuchel (that is Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League-winning manager, may I add). Finally, Boehly had the audacity to propose a Premier League All-Star Game (as if this is the NBA) at a SALT New York conference.

While I feign outrage at Boehly’s actions so far, in some ways I admire him. It takes a certain level of bravery or stupidity to approach a game you know little about, proposing ideas on how the league is run. But it’s this sort of boldness that created the Premier League in the first place.

Australian-American media magnate Rupert Murdoch and his former company, Sky, revolutionised English football broadcasting. Prior to the Premier League, teams individually negotiated their media rights with broadcasters, rather than the league negotiating as a collective. Murdoch saw the opportunity to unite the league and profit from his paid TV station.

In 1992, the value of the media rights was about £600,000 per game while that figure ballooned to £9 million per game by 2021. His innovation transformed the league into the one we know and love today – a league driven by fame and fortune. In comparison, the first half of the 1985/86 First Division season was not broadcasted on television.

The Americanisms within our football are not new. Some additions have worked well such, as Live Monday Night Football with David Jones, Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, borrowed from American Football’s Monday Night Football. Others not so well, including Sky Sports’ introduction of the halftime cheerleaders, the Sky Strikers in the 1992/93 season.

It’s too late for such a model in the United Kingdom… but we can learn a great deal from the German league

While I’ve referred to the Americanisation of English football, like the reverse of the 1960s British pop invasion, it’s important to note that many of the changes are simply a result of commercialisation.

The nationality of the businesspeople involved is irrelevant. As Financial Times journalist Janan Ganesh puts it: “Americanisation has become a sour phrase for the reform of anything in a vaguely consumer focused direction.” Nonetheless, English, Saudi Arabian and Thai football owners all ultimately care about the bottom line.

Whether you like it or not, commercialisation has already happened and continues to happen in football. The European Super League proposal was an attempt to produce more football content for fans to engage with.

But I doubt Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez, and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli had the fans in mind when they spearheaded the idea. Instead, they thought like businessmen, concerned with the profits for broadcasters, advertisers and, most importantly, themselves.

Of course, the Super League was a vulgar example of football’s commercialisation, but it’s happening everywhere. The countless football documentaries such as Amazon’s All or Nothing series, Netflix’s Sunderland Till I Die and Disney’s Welcome to Wrexham are efforts to expand football’s global reach and attract a younger audience through streaming.

Yet at least the aforementioned shows have the fans in mind to an extent. What fan wouldn’t want to see behind the scenes of their favourite football club? Additionally, the documentaries include testimonies from the fans themselves.

And here I reach the crux of the matter. The fans should be on board with the changes happening in their football clubs. Literally.

The 50+1 model in Germany’s Bundesliga has its merits. The model, which grants fans at least 51% ownership of their clubs, provides supporters with voting rights, low ticket prices and the highest average stadium attendances in world football.

Obviously, it’s too late for such a model in the United Kingdom. After all, the league was called the Barclays Premier League for nine years. Despite this, I believe we can learn a great deal from the German league.

Although Boehly dismissed German and former Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel, I believe we can still learn from the American too. For one, Americans have utilised celebrities as brand ambassadors like no one else. Chelsea should therefore call on an actual fan, American rap superstar Jack Harlow, to become the club’s official US brand ambassador. Imagine the halftime show! Oh wait, we don’t do that in football.