Being an avid follower of football (no, I am not going to call it Soccer) and specifically the English Premier League (EPL) for quite a few years, the business aspects of EPL - the most successful sports league in the World - have always intrigued me. So what should an EPL fan do for the summer months between the end of the previous season and the start of the new one? Read a book about the EPL of course!
“Data shows that EPL is the greatest sports entertainment product in the World. In the span of twenty-five years, the league's clubs have increased their combined value by 10,000 percent!”
“The Club” is a fascinating & truly captivating story of anything and everything EPL. Of course, if you are not a fan of EPL, this book is clearly Not for you. The history of EPL’s formation, how a few 30-something investors worked together and competed together to create the most commercially successful sports league is just amazing to read. The original founders might have taken inspiration from the USA’s NFL and the NBA, but they tweaked and tinkered enough things to make EPL uniquely British and still the most Internationally impactful league ever.
The book has enough new and behind-closed-doors information to fascinate long term fans of English football while the tone and the details are accessible enough for casual fans as well. There are definitely some stories that I would have liked to dig deeper and would have liked to know more, but is not a dealbreaker.
The book however is not perfect. There are 2 glaring issues. First is that the Audiobook narration is horrible. I switched to the kindle version and never looked back. Secondly, there are unnecessary time jumps that don’t really add any value and are just a nuisance.
Overall though - highly recommend this book if you are an EPL fan and are interested in business aspects of a sports league.
“The EPL business, ultimately, embodies the challenges of globalization, of the push and pull between expansion and identity, about the universalization of a product that is steeped in decidedly local customs.”
