CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Over the years the English premier league has become a household name in the mind of people all over the world. According to (Asakitikpi, 2009) stated that the English premier league has played a significant role in the growth of commerce and entertainment in England and the rest of the world.
Most people see England as a site for tourist attraction because of the dominance of sport and the role of media in the advertisement of the English premier league. (Onifade, 2007)
The English premier league has become a global giant in sport attracting the best players and managers from around the world; it has grown its worldwide audience accordingly, now attracting an estimated television audience of 4.7 billion people. (Premier League, 2011).
Most young players come to limelight easily because of the activities of the media in England; this made most young players to prefer a switch to English premier league than other football league (Lemoth, 2011). The media has contributed so much recently to the English premier league; the contribution is seen in the areas of adverts; in the sense that most football club sponsors (AON, AIA, YOKOHAMA TYRES, EMIRATE, etc) become known all over the world as a result of media in the English premier league (Coakley (2007, p.77)
Smart (2007, p.7) refers to the relationship between sport, media, and sponsors as the “golden triangle”, whereby sport is not just transmitted but also promoted to larger publics.
The expansion of global media has allowed sport to enjoy previously unimagined audiences. Miller et al. (2001) argue that, “the [media-sport-culture] complex places media at the very heart of sports structures and practices, because without the media’s capacity to carry sports signs and myths to large and diverse audiences across the globe, sport would be a relatively minor and increasingly anachronistic folk pursuit”. Sports coverage and advertising, thus, do far more than transmit sport to larger, more dispersed audiences. Media help to define sport and fundamentally change how it is experienced. It is to this regard that the study wishes to examine peoples’ perception on how media has contributed to the success of English premier league.
1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
What is now known as the English Premier League has its roots in an earlier league, called the Football League, which was originally founded in 1888.
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales.
Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top level football league in England from its foundation until 1992.
Since 1995 it has had 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are currently known as The Championship, League One and League Two. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League.
A director of Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures. On March 2, 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide a number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season.
The first meeting was held at Anderson's Hotel in London on March 23, 1888, on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on April 17 at the Royal Hotel.
In 1992, the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League to take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal and on May 27, 1992, the Premier League as we know it today was formed.
This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the Football League with three.
There was no change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained on the same terms as between the old First and Second Divisions.
The 22 inaugural members of the new Premier League were Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, and Wimbledon.
A total of 43 clubs have played in the Premier League from its inception in 1992 until the end of the 2009/10 season. Two other clubs (Luton Town and Notts County) were signatories to the original agreement that created the Premier League, but were relegated prior to the inaugural Premier League season and have not subsequently returned to the top flight.
Seven clubs have been members of the Premier League for every season since its inception. This group is composed of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Due to insistence by Fifa that domestic leagues reduce the number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams were relegated from the league and only two teams promoted.
On June 8, 2006, Fifa requested that all major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007/08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction. Ultimately, the 2007/08 season kicked off again with 20 teams.
The league changed its name from the FA Premier League to simply the Premier League in 2007.
1.3 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Globally, there are controversies emanating from news flow and communication imbalance where accusations are made that issues in developing world are not given adequate coverage by the international media. Just as scholars in developing world extend these accusations, many believe that the media of third world do not help matters as they tend to give more coverage to foreign events. This might be the localized version of the communication imbalance mantra. This argument seems to have been strengthened by accusations in some quarters that local media pay more attention to foreign contents than local contents and this appears to affect the perception of people towards foreign products Again, this argument tends to have been extended to the sports industry. Sports administrators in the developing world have attributed third world’s craze for European leagues (English Premier League in this context) to the kind of coverage given to them by both local and international media. At the centre of this accusation is the fact that both sports administrators and commentators in Nigeria are of the view that English Premier League is given more attention by Nigerian fans than they give to the local leagues because local media give more coverage to EPL. However, some observers believe that football fanaticism on the part of Nigeria fans towards EPL cannot be attributed to the kind of coverage given to it but on the sophisticated nature of the League. If the former argument is anything to go by, then it is against the local content provision in the National Broadcasting code.
1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The main aim of the research work is to examine the peoples’ perception on how media has contributed to the success of English premier league. Other specific objectives of the study include:
- To examine the effect of media on UILUGS' (unilorin undergraduate students) exposure to EPL.
- To examine the perception of EPL by UILUGS.
- To investigate media's contributions to perception of EPL.
- RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The study came up with research questions so as to ascertain the above stated objectives. The research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is the effect of media on UILUGS' (unilorin undergraduate students) exposure to EPL?
- What are the perceptions of EPL by UILUGS?
- What are the contributions of media to perception of EPL?
1.6 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Hypothesis 1
H0: There is no significant relationship between media coverage and perception of the EPL by UILUGS
H1: There is significant relationship between media coverage and perception of the EPL by UILUGS
Hypothesis 2
H0: Media does not influence the growth of English premier league in Nigeria
H1: Media influences the growth of English premier league in Nigeria
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The significance of this study is grouped under three headings: Practically, this work would serve as a resource material to scholars who would carry out studies relating to the subject of the work.
Societal significance, the study would also be an eye-opener for journalists, sports reporters, and media practitioners to understand the need for balanced coverage of both leagues and most importantly, their duty in the promotion of local sports.
The study will also help the police and other security agent in monitoring the behavioural pattern of players and coaches in a particular sport event.
Theoretically, the study would at length explain the practical application of the theory as it relates to the study.
1.8 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this study embraces the level of media coverage of EPL and NPL. It reviews the direction (slant) of reports given to the leagues as well as the prominence accorded to them. The study would also establish the dominant subject matters found in the coverage of both leagues the media and their styles of reporting those issues. Also, for the purpose of this study, the researcher would examine the relevant areas (sport section of the national dailies) for its success, by focusing mainly on media (TV, Newspaper and radio). The study would also focus on 2016/2017 season where a season commences in August and ends in May, the following year. The analysis of media constitutes the essence of chapter four of this study.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
MEDIA: the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively.
FOOTBALL: A type of sport that involves two teams (where each team is made up of 11players) competing for the winner by scoring the highest goal.
TV RIGHT: the broadcasting of sports events is the live coverage of sports as a television program, on radio, and other broadcasting media
EPL: EPL is an acronym for English Premier League which is the professional football league in United Kingdom and, it is made up of twenty teams.
REFERENCES
Miller, T., Lawrence, G., McKay, J., & Rowe, D. (2001). Globalization and sport. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Moor, L. (2007). Sport and commodification: A reflection on key concepts. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 31(2), 128–142. Osborne, A., & Coombs, D.S. (2009). Enthusiasts, invaders, and custodians: Media characterizations of foreign owners in Barclays Premier League. International Journal of Sport Communication, 2(3), 297–318. Premier League. (2011). About the Premiere League: What we do. Retrieved March 27, 2012 from: http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/about/whatwe-do.html Smart, B. (2007). Not playing around: Global capitalism, modern sport and consumer culture. In R. Giulianotti & R. Robertson (Eds.), Globalization and sport (pp. 6–27). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
