As the planet’s collective gaze once again transfixed itself upon Old Trafford for the visit of Liverpool on Saturday, another chapter was written in the history of the biggest fixture in world football.
The clash of Manchester United and their Scouse rivals surely surpasses all others for the sheer volume of interest it evokes, reflecting not the primacy of the Premier League in the football world but also the magic specific to this epic rivalry.
By virtue of the global saturation of the English Premier League, this is the match up that arrests the attention of the football public. From Dublin to Dubai, Lithgow to Lisbon, this is the competition that everybody follows.
On some recent travels, I met a Dutch Football fan who had driven from Rotterdam to Newcastle to see the locals take on Liverpool, such is the attraction of the English game.
Obviously mesmerised by the glamour of the English product, he articulated his passion: “In Spain, only two teams can win it, in France only one. Italy is boring. No one knows about Germany. The rest are crap. That is why I love England.”
Well said.
With supporters like this tuning in worldwide, it was no surprise when the dulcet tones of Martin Tyler informed his Sky Sports audience that the broadcast would reach 600 million households.
That’s how big the Premier League has become.
But why have these two teams risen above the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, a more local rivalry than the two teams in red, to become the pre-eminent fixture in the English football calendar?
The obvious reason is the two club’s sheer success.
The combined 35 Leagues, 18 FA Cups and 8 European Cups provide enough silverware to command support from every corner of the globe – especially Asia.
Why else would United have approached Indian company Sahara and Saudi Telecom to replace their current shirt sponsors AIG?
Quite simply, everybody loves a winner, and there are no bigger winners than these prolific rivals.
But success alone does not define the character of this fixture.
As an Australian living in North West England, you can sense the hysterical desire of both Manchester and Liverpool to prove their superiority as cities. As Liverpool fans enjoy their title as European Capital of Culture ’08, on Saturday the Stretford End unfurled a banner reminding the travelling Kopites that Manchester held the far more enviable distinction of being Europe’s Capital of Trophies in the same year.
It is the same kind of intercity enmity that characterises clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Ajax and Feyenoord, and closer to home, Sydney and Melbourne.
Unlike genuine local derbies between Liverpool Vs Everton and United Vs Man City which, in recent years, have assumed a David and Goliath tone, you cannot resist the lure of England’s two most successful clubs, and richly competitive cities, going hammer and tong for the three points.
This is the very best that world football has to offer, representing these two warring neighbours.
The best of Holland, France, Portugal, Brazil, Bulgaria, Serbia, Germany, Wales, Ireland, Korea, Finland, Italy, Spain, Israel, Argentina and Denmark handpicked for the enjoyment of the global audience.
Oh yeah, and England.
As Liverpool romped to a memorable 4-1 victory on Manchurian soil, one sensed that it was not just the North West which stopped to witness which city would enjoy bragging rights until the next meeting, but the entire globe.
chris
Guest
mental block - is it latter or ladder.
chris
Guest
France only one team can win? Look at the latter. you have olympique lyon, marseille, paris st germain, Bordeuax all within 3 points or so of each other. Common sense tells you that if epl tv rights are worth over 4 billion, then the audience must be more than 8 million. simple common sense i think.
Tommy Smith
Roar Rookie
*the whole world is interested, pardon me
Tommy Smith
Roar Rookie
Good points, Grant. But regardless of competitiveness (and I agree 100% with your comments regarding German atmosphere, I myself am packing up my bags and heading from England to Germany next October for the world-renowned atmosphere), Germany is not widely known globally. Liverpool-United is the world's derby, the whole world is interesting...there are dozens of derbies around the world with superior atmosphere/history, but this is the preeminent fixture in the preeminent league. Regardless of what people say about the Prem, its global exposure is superior to that of any other, and Liverpool and United are at the forefront by virtue of their success (Colin I agree 100% with you on this point people love this rivalry because of the respective club's success). Duff, maybe the world is full of gloryhunters but that doesnt change the fact they tune into this match regardless of the quality/passion/history of others. I'm not saying best/most passionate derby, nor am I defending the merit of the undisputed global supremacy of the Prem. I'm saying this fixture is the biggest game in the world's most popular league (whether the fixture is worthy of such attention, probably not, but truth is that is does enjoy such exposure)
jimbo
Guest
True Tah, The A-League is shown live as follows: Australia Fox Sports – live coverage all games & highlights & finals live New Zealand Sky Sports - live coverage all games & highlights & finals live US Fox Soccer Channel - 1 live game weekly & highlights & finals live Asia Star Sports, I-Cable and SkyPerfecTV! - 1 live game weekly & highlights & finals live Canada Fox Sports World - 1 live game weekly & highlights & finals live UK Sky Sports - 1 live game weekly & highlights & finals live The A-league is also streamed live on the The-Afc.tv website. The A-League runs during the major Asian football comps off season and gets good audiences. Fox estimated the worldwide audience for the A-League grand final somewhere between 20 and 30 million.
Colin N
Guest
The Liverpool - Manchester United 'Derby' is only big now because they are arguably the two most successful clubs at the moment. I remember a few years back when Manchester United weren't doing so well (and there were certain people who wanted Sir Alex to go). Liverpool were just a poor side at that time, who could produce a great performance once in a while. I can't remember the exact year, but it was first time a Manchester United-Liverpool wasn't televised on Sky for something like 15 years.
jimbo
Guest
http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/aug/aug188.php "The EPL has an audience in China alone in the tens of Millions" :)
jimbo
Guest
What a load of farkin horseshit! 19M people tuned in in Spain alone to watch Liverpool play Real Madrid and the EPL outrates the ECL games and is the world’s most watched football competition. http://www.tribalfootball.com/record-spanish-tv-audience-see-real-madrid-thrashed-liverpool-232282 8M people in the world watch EPL. What a load of CRAP! The EPL TV rights are just about to be sold for nearly $4Billion - would they pay that much for a program that had a worldwide TV audience of only 8M. Just google “football TV audiences” and you’ll get hundreds of entries that contradict this ridiculous joke of an article that you anti-soccer hooligans so righteously quote. :)
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Excellent point Grant, and that's to say nothing of the always hard-fought Argentine Primera Division (featuring seven different Apertura and Clasura champions in the past five seasons) and one from left field - the J. League, in which coach of reigning champions Oswaldo de Oliveira claimed this season that between "10 to 15 teams have a realistic chance of winning the league." There might have been many millions watching the English Premier League on TV last weekend, but the capacity crowds in several J. League stadia suggest the locals are still interested in watching their own domestic fare as well.
Duff
Guest
Britney Spears was the most popular musician in the world 5 years ago. It means she must have been the best. Because these people, not unlike lemmings, are over-saturated with a one-team league, a team who will occasionally lose to any of the 3 other pereniall EPL brides-maids (as they did on Saturday), does not make it anything more special than it actually is. Infact, this leagues "popularity" is killing football, and anyone who has been associated with the sport longer than foxtel has been around would know that. Glorifying gloy-hunting is all you are doing. Give me an AFC Wimbledon v mk dons, Celtic v rangers, Fenerbache v Galatasaray, hell, even a Sydney v melbourne game over standing in a pub full of Asians, Londoners wishing they were from up norf, and people that actually believe Anfield Road has any low lying fields anywhere close to surrounding it. Passion shouldn't be defined by how many plastic supporters watch it to me.
Grant
Guest
"bviously mesmerised by the glamour of the English product, he articulated his passion: “In Spain, only two teams can win it, in France only one. Italy is boring. No one knows about Germany. The rest are crap. That is why I love England.” Well said." Well... not really. He's not really much of a football fan if he thinks these generalisations are true. It's a fair comment that Lyon are currently 7-time champions, scratch the surface a little and have a look at the final tables. It was far from being cut and dry. Italy is boring? If that's not your thing, then fine. I find it quite exciting when I get the chance to watch it, and more often than not the season is only decided in the last month. No one knows about Germany? Tell that to their countrymen who must come close to having the highest average attendances in Europe, when you look at the top 10 clubs, 4 are german. There are 2 spanish, 2 english, 1 italian and Celtic from Scotland. If that doesn't convince you, just have a look at the table. The top 5 teams are within 6 points of each other, including 3 teams level at 2nd place. 3 of which, leaders Hertha, equal 2nd Vfl Wolfsburg and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim are all surprise packets this year. And please tell it to the hordes of English who, disillusioned by the ridiculous matchday prices in their homeland, are flying across the channel to Germany to watch their adopted teams where they can not only get a great match of football in arguably the best stadia across Europe, but also a bit of a foreign experience all for the same price as going to see Blackburn play Wigan at the JJB stadium. But then at the end of these ill informed generalisations, this Dutch fella says "they're all crap, that's why I love England" I fail to see how you can criticise countries for only having one or two teams that can win it, then "love" England. The reason why I don't love England is because it is invariably the same 4 teams fighting it out every bloody year, even then it's sometimes quite easy to see who will take it out. Honest truth is, you have to go back to 1995 to find the last team outside of Chelsea, man U and Arsenal to actually win the league title in England. In Spain, Valencia, Deportivo and Atletico Madrid have all won the title since '95. In france, even despite Lyon taking out the last 7, Auxerre, Monaco, Lens, Bordeaux and Nantes have all won. In Italy, admittedly, there hasn't been so much difference. Maybe just the two years that the two Roman clubs stepped up and recently as Inter have become a resurgent force. and in Deutschland, Borussia Dortmund, Kaiserslautern, Bremen and Stuttgart have all managed to usurp the championship from perennial contenders Bayern München. I'm not trying to doubt that the EPL is the most popular league in the world, it is extremely popular because the head honchos at the FA have been working overtime to make it that way through media saturation. It just pisses me off to no end when people who have what seems to be an interest in only the glamourous side of football can make such sweeping statements that discredit all the different and captivating forms of the beautiful game- and still be heralded as a "football fan" I guess I'll just resume my place as the only Australian standing in the nordkurve for "shitty" and "unknown" MSV Duisburg in the NW of Germany.
Tommy Smith
Roar Rookie
Just relaying the broadcasted facts. Executive Koala if you dont like the Premier League, and you think any praise for it is cheerleading, no one is forcing you to read this article. You can read all the articles on the Spanish and Dutch leagues on this website...despite the fact they are fewer in number because the Premiership is unmatched in its global appeal, precisely the point of my articlle.
True Tah
Guest
jimbo isnt the A-League final watched by an average crowd of 85million?
executive.koala
Guest
And here it is. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/tvs-great-viewing-mirage-768839.html "Or how what was said to be a global audience of a billion turned out to be just eight million. Nick Harris distinguishes between fact and fiction in the 2007 television viewing figures"
executive.koala
Guest
I read in The Independent that the largest TV audience for the PL worldwide last year was 8 million including England. For starters, it's only on Pay Tv in England so the audience is extremely limited. Anyone who says 600 million or 1 billion or whatever is just swallowing PR nonsense. This article is just typical ignorance and disrespect to world football from a PL cheerleader.
jimbo
Guest
Do they count Clubs and Pubs, public squares and villages as households. UK pubs were packed to the rafters.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
It is one of the great rivalries in World sport. What a great win by Liverpool. Steffy, do you like any other Sports apart from League ?
Tommy Smith
Roar Rookie
Thanks, scoop. That doesn't diminish the unparalled exposure the game enjoyed compared to any other regular club game on the planet.
Steffy
Guest
"With supporters like this tuning in worldwide, it was no surprise when the dulcet tones of Martin Tyler informed his Sky Sports audience that the broadcast would reach 600 million households." The vast majority of those households didn't watch.