A (neo)liberal revolution? The Premier League: between myth and reality

Journal title IMPRESE E STORIA
Author/s Giuseppe Telesca
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2024/50
Language Italian Pages 19 P. 106-124 File size 160 KB
DOI 10.3280/ISTO2024-050005
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Many factors conjured to the launch of the Premier League in 1992. Prominent, among them, was the opening of new fields of social life to the market economy, typical of the ‘Conservative Revolution’ of the 1980s. In this context, the idea that a football club should be treated as a profit-making venture acquired force and became the new consensus among insiders and pundits. This paper argues that the efficiency, profitability, and sustainability of the Premier League has been – with the exception of a few elite clubs – a myth. The Premier League has demonstrated a formidable capacity to attract foreign investment, the best players and managers, and to boost revenues through the sale of broadcasting rights, sponsorship and merchandizing. Yet, neither the market discipline, epitomized by the wealth of football clubs which were floated on the stock exchange in the 1990s, nor the attempt to control costs through mechanisms such as the Financial Fair Play regulation and the Profitability and Sustainability Rules, have solved the problem of a sector which has proved endemically uncapable to contain costs.

Keywords: English Premier League (EPL), Football financial profitability, Football financial instability, Financial Fair Play (FFP), Profitability and Sustainability Rules

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Giuseppe Telesca, Una rivoluzione (neo) liberale? La Premier League tra mito e realtà in "IMPRESE E STORIA" 50/2024, pp 106-124, DOI: 10.3280/ISTO2024-050005