Jimmy Burns OBE reveals why the Premier League is unrivaled as the world's premier football competition

Believe it or not, this unbelievable story doesn't come from decades ago, but from the early days of the Premier League. This is just one of the fascinating tidbits you'll uncover in "The Premier – Big Business and Great Football", the newest book from renowned journalist, author, and OBE recipient, Jimmy Burns. In this insightful read, Burns offers a captivating glimpse into the evolution of the Premier League, which he describes as a colossal force in modern-day football.

“It was not unknown for players to hold competitions as to who could eat the most prior to and after the match with the record of nine meals held by Steve Bould. Some of the players went on to the pitch still burping,” a still baffled Dennis Bergkamp once reminisced about his time with Arsenal.AdvertisementAdvertisement

“It is a very personal take on how I've lived the Premier over the years and how I see it today through a series of almost colourful vignettes. It is an attempt to remind people of what football was like in England before the Premier League, how it came into being, and the colourful characters that have populated the story of the Premier League.”

Burns was initially approached by a Spanish publisher because of the immense interest in the Premier League, even in Spain.

“Indeed, the TV ratings were showing that more people were watching Premiership matches than they were watching La Liga, which is extraordinary, given the history of the great, great rivalry of Real Madrid and Barca.”

The Premier League a well thought commercial product

Born in Spain and brought up in England by a Spanish mother and English father, Jimmy Burns has a foot in each camp, so why does he think the Premier League has reached such a global audience?

“There's more than one factor but the first one, which is quite a cynical answer but a true one, is that the Premiership almost from its inception was a huge commercial project. It was very well thought out, and with satellite tv it really expanded on a global audience that reached out to faraway places like Asia and the United States, which hadn't taken football too seriously.

“At the same time, it tried to retain this thought of England being at the heart of the history of football with a historic fan base which have stuck with their clubs through thick and thin, and who gave the passion to what otherwise would have been a fairly cold clinical commercial bet. 

“Another factor is the Bosman ruling. The Premiership was incredibly successful in terms of attracting foreign talent, both at player and at managerial level. Finally, and by no means least, it attracted big money from foreign ownership. Obviously, that big money put the Premier in a competitive advantage in terms of buying players and building big stadiums and reaching out across the world. And the result is what we've got,” says Jimmy Burns, before pointing out a few stories in more recent years which has helped attract enormous attention to the Premier League.

“You had the David versus Goliath story of Leicester City winning the Premier. These minnows taking on the greats and winning and then there’s the phenomenon of the rivalry between Guardiola and Klopp which was like a global mega circus. These two guys almost imitating themselves in terms of acting out their role as very charismatic managers in front of the cameras, building up a lot of passion and connecting with their fans.”

Roman The Disruptor

That particular rivalry has been a huge attraction for the Premier League in recent years, Jimmy Burns believes.

“But let's not forget earlier periods where we had Ferguson's great Manchester United teams. We had what I call the French Revolution, which was Arsene Wenger coming to English football. He transformed mentalities and the way the English saw their own game.”

Manchester United and Arsenal shared nine Premier League titles between them before Chelsea disrupted the duopoly under the ownership of Roman Abramovich. No one has summed up his time at Stamford Bridge better than football writer Jim White, as Jimmy Burns alludes to in his book.

“The club accumulated 19 major trophies in his time. An inescapable conclusion is he knew what he was doing.”

Was Abramovich the catalyst to the kind of ownership we see today in the Premier League?

“Well, Chelsea were very successful and no one really questioned the Abramovich ownership. The fans absolutely loved him. He was a hero. Every time there was a match at Stamford Bridge, you always saw Abramovich there like one more of the crowd. Even after the invasion of Ukraine and the government came down hard on Abramovich's ownership, you had Chelsea fans singing his name and chanting for Russia,” a somewhat baffled Burns explains.

A hymn to human solidarity

Speaking of controversial chants, Burns also brings up the time when Liverpool fans sang “there’s only one Harold Shipman” at the visiting Man United supporters with reference to perhaps the most prolific serial killer in modern English history. 

“But to look on the brighter side, I devote quite a lot of space in the book to what I think is one of the most beautiful and totemic hymns of football anywhere, which is You'll Never Walk Alone. It's a hymn not just sung by Liverpool fans, but up in Celtic and down in Dortmund to name but a few places. It's an incredible hymn to human solidarity, which I empathize with.”

Most people empathized when nine-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was the innocent victim of gun crime in Liverpool in 2022. A tragedy marked by Liverpool FC and Everton in a Merseyside-derby when the entire stadium stood and applauded in unity in the ninth minute. Not a sight you’d find at a derby in Madrid between Real and Atletico.

”Certainly not! I think in terms of big city derbies, the derby between Everton and Liverpool is fairly unique. There is an underlying solidarity of simply being from Liverpool. And then you've got the whole Beatles thing thrown in. Atletico against Real Madrid is a totally different proposition,” states Burns who still divides his time between England and Spain.

In “The Premier – Big Business and Great Football”, Jimmy Burns among other things takes a look at hooliganism, drinking culture, underdogs and even touches upon the concept of WAG’s. The book is out now with Pitch Publishing and can be purchased in assorted bookshops or right here.