Football isn’t just the most popular sport on Earth, it is also one of the most lucrative sports too. To take the English Premier League (EPL) as an example, revenue soared to almost £2billion in the 2007/08 football season, with 11 of the top 20 teams posting an operating profit.
Furthermore, the EPL is generally considered to be the most watched sporting league in the whole world, with some reports suggesting that it’s followed to some extent by around one billion people.
This is of course the beauty of television. A top of the table Manchester United versus Chelsea match can be beamed to every corner of the earth, meaning that a football fan on the southernmost tip of Patagonia, can watch it just as easily as a sports fan sitting in a pub across from the stadium.
Football and TV go hand-in-hand in the 21st century and to a certain extent, they are mutually dependable. The revenue generated by TV rights allows English clubs to buy the crème-de-la-crème of the world’s footballing talent, which in turn means that footie fans are glued to their screens each week to watch the scintillating skills unfold before them. Everyone’s a winner, it would seem.
The only potential issue for some people is traipsing to the pub every Saturday or Sunday lunchtime to watch whatever the match of the day may be. Add into the mix the plethora of Champions League matches, international matches and even domestic matches from other top leagues such as Spain and Italy, then football fans can end up forking out rather a lot of cash in the pub.
Two visits to the pub a week, at an absolute minimum of £6 each visit (probably more, however…) equates to almost £50 a month. That’s a lot of money to spend when all a fan really wants to do is watch their beloved football.
This helps to put the cost of satellite TV into perspective. The relative cost of subsc
Of course, there is the social aspect to consider too. However, football fans may be surprised to discover that many of their mates are actually quite keen for a bit of home comfort for the weekly showcase games, as it will save them money too. So a small gathering and a few quiet drinks at home could be just the tonic for fans the country over, meaning that football has well and truly come home.
