No Matter Who Leaves, Premier League Wins
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Version 0 of 1. Gareth Bale is gone. Even after Tottenham Hotspur officials spent months issuing don’t-even-talk-about-it, don’t-even-think-about-it, no-seriously-stop-thinking-about-it statements regarding any potential sale of Bale, a midfielder who was last season’s Premier League player of the year, the North London club surprised absolutely no one on Sunday when it sent him to Real Madrid. Bale’s transfer price, believed to be 100 million euros (about $130 million), puts him in a class by himself. If confirmed, the fee would be the highest paid for a player. But while that largess may make Bale unique — at least until next summer, when Madrid’s magic money men lock in on their next fascination — there is one area in which Bale, a Welshman, is most certainly not alone: he is a star who spurned England. Look at the list of big-money transfers this summer. Neymar (Barcelona) and Bale (Madrid) went to Spain. Mario Götze (Bayern Munich) stayed in Germany. Edinson Cavani (Paris St.-Germain), Radamel Falcao (Monaco) and Marquinhos (P.S.G.) went to France. Even if Arsenal pulls off a last-minute move for Mesut Özil, as has been speculated, five of the six most lucrative moves completed during this transfer period will have sent players somewhere other than the Premier League, generally regarded as the best league in the world. There are a number of possible explanations for this seeming incongruence. The more physical style of play in England may be less appealing to some players; the league-imposed financial restrictions on English clubs may hold down gratuitous spending on players (relatively speaking); and the depth of competition in England may give a star pause before he commits to a team that will have a less-than-guaranteed opportunity to play in the Champions League. In addition, winters in England are brutal. Any one of these explanations is feasible, and all very likely have some measure of truth. “It’s a bit of a traffic jam, in a lot of ways, in the Premier League,” said Laurent Dubois, an author and professor at Duke who writes often about the intersection of soccer and politics. “There are a number of reasons why a star player might go somewhere else, and a lot of it depends on that specific situation.” It would be easy to see this trend as an indictment of the Premier League. After all, it is difficult to imagine, say, the best basketball players in the world wanting to play anywhere but the N.B.A. But while some international observers — not to mention a few corners of the British news media — may seize upon this as a referendum on the quality of the English game, Bale’s departure will ultimately serve more as an affirmation of the Premier League’s stature than as a denigration of its product. Why? Because the Premier League has reached that hallowed ground where it is far, far bigger than any of its stars or teams. “From the outside, it looks as if the Premier League is not as attractive as it used to be for the top players,” said Philippe Auclair, a London-based author of several soccer books. “But if you look more closely, the strength and depth of the squads is incredible. The clubs have not signed many big stars, but the league does not need them.” From a business standpoint, this is undeniable. There are plenty of leading lights in the Premier League, and a closer look at the transfer signings this summer shows that a number of players just below that top tier will be playing in England this year. Tottenham has used most of its expected infusion of cash from the Bale deal to acquire quality players like Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and Paulinho. Manchester City added Jesús Navas and Stevan Jovetic to a team that already had top performers like David Silva and Edin Dzeko. In other words, the pieces are interchangeable. In much the same way that American sports fans have little choice but to acknowledge the perpetual monolith that is the N.F.L. — with or without Tim Tebow, it is still a juggernaut — the reality of the Premier League’s situation is that it is in a different stratosphere from other leagues. The broadcasting company BT recently paid £736 million (about $1.15 billion) for three years of television rights; the BBC pays £180 million (about $280 million) for the rights to simply show extended highlights of the league on its “Match of the Day” program. News International, which operates newspapers including The Sun and The Times, paid £20 million (about $31 million) to be able to show limited highlights on its digital platforms. Similarly lucrative deals are in place in Asia and in Australia. In the United States, NBC is paying about $83 million for the rights to show the Premier League — several times what NBC, ESPN and Univision pay combined to broadcast Major League Soccer. The money, quite simply, never stops flowing into the Premier League. Ten years ago, David Beckham, as big a star as there has been, left the Premier League for Madrid. Four years ago, Cristiano Ronaldo, another dominant player, made the same choice. Now it is Bale — and others — looking somewhere other than England for soccer stardom. Bale’s departure is a significant move, an important transfer. But England thrived after those stars left, and it will thrive after Bale, too. Tottenham may well miss him. The Premier League will just move on. |