One of the earliest decisions I took by myself was in respect of my support of the Manchester City Football Club. I took this decision in 1969 and have not even reviewed it since then. And I am not likely to review it now or in the future. So, don’t entertain any fear or hope that the recent decision that my club has been guilty of deliberate and long term financial doping will elicit some condemnation from me. On the contrary, I have elected to stand even more firmly than ever with City.

The first question that I expect from any interested reader is, why City? Some would ask that question out of a desire for information. But I expect that some, especially those who are not very knowledgeable about English football traditions or culture, will ask that question from a position of blissful ignorance. It is therefore necessary to point out that English football league competition existed for over a century before the Premier League was invented in the o1992/93 season and Manchester City FC, founded in 1894 is one of the oldest members of the English League and for much of that period, played in the first division. It is interesting to note that not too much emphasis should be placed on longevity of League membership because some of the earliest members of the League such as Preston Northend are no longer a going concern. But for the fact that JJ Okocha played for Bolton Wanderers, I wonder how many Nigerians would have any knowledge of that club which was still quite famous and was champion of England in 1996. Blackburn and Blackpool are two other clubs which, like Bolton are close to Manchester and used to be powerhouses of the English Football League but have now dropped out of all reckoning. They have since passed into folklore primarily because their local economies collapsed following the demise of the cotton industries which flourished furiously in that region for well over a century and supported the hopes and aspirations of those clubs.

These erstwhile football powers are no longer counted among the football elite because the engine room for football runs on money, for which there is no substitute. For good measure, it is worth pointing out in this regard that Blackburn Rovers were champions of England in 1995, on the back of a team which was expressly and expensively assembled for that purpose by a wealthy local buisnessman. A more recent example is Leicester City which ten years ago were Premier League champions. On that famous occasion, they overcame odds of 1 in 5000 to become champions, so there was a touch of the miraculous to that feat. Even then, without the heavy financial support provided by their wealthy Thai owner, those odds would have been insurmountable. Following the altogether sudden death of their benefactor, Leicester now plays in the second tier of the EnglishFootball League, without any realistic hope of returning to the Premier League anytime soon unless of course the owners come up with another hefty injection of hard cash. The possibility of thunder striking the same place twice in this fashion can be confidently discounted.

The Premier League itself is built on money and it was created with the sole purpose of making even more money. You cannot win a seat around a high stakes poker table without a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket and you will be tufted out on your ear as soon as you are no longer able to cover your bets. One of the largest and most stringent poker tables in existence anywhere is without doubt, the English Premier League.

The English Premier League has so far, succeeded far beyond the reasonable expectations of its original sponsors and the greatest challenge to it is how to maintain the dominance which it has created for itself. It has been so successful that there are a lot of football fans all around the world who have no knowledge of what came before the Premier League. Many, perhaps too many of such people live in Nigeria.

Before the advent of the Premier League, interest in British football in Nigeria was confined to people who were involved in pools betting. True, there were some fans of one club or the other but their number was so small that the word negligible has to be attached to them. I became a member of that band quite by accident but at this time, virtually everyone I know has been drawn into the circus created by the arrival of the English Premier League to these shores. So much so that some enterprising Churches are now cashing in on the craze that it has generated. The followers of the most popular of those football clubs in Nigeria; Arsenal, Man. United, Chelsea and Liverpool are called out to the altar in turns to drop their offering at Church harvest services. Those fans dance to the altar to intercede with God for their respective clubs and rush home to be royally entertained on television by those clubs. It is clear that a new item has been inserted into our lives by the EPL as millions of us partake in its mysteries week in, week out as we join millions of fans from all over the world to take part in the celebration of the rites attached to Premier League football.

Before the Premier League opened our eyes to the heady joys of its football brand, the game was a local attraction in England in that you supported your local football club under normal circumstances. Going to your neighbourhood football stadium after work on a Saturday was no more than what was expected of a typical working class man in twentieth century Britain. In those days, the fans were tied with the fortunes of their club in a way which can only be imagined. Leeds United, then at the height of their powers went unbeaten  for the first 23 matchesIn the 1973/74 season and such was the hormonal rush that was unleashed that the recorded birthrate went up significantly within the town.The players were also recruited locally which is why legendary level rivalries existed among clubs which recruit their fans from the same locality; Tottenham/Arsenal in North London, Everton/Liverpool in Liverpool, Man. United/City in Manchester and Rangers/Celtic in Glasgow to mention a few. The rivalry between the two Glasgow clubs is also heavily tinted with religious differences and is therefore quite special, sometimes violently so.

With the globalisation of football through the Premier league, these rivalries now reach into every corner of the world. Intricate and state of the art communication systems now transmit live football matches to every corner of the globe that is connected to the internet. A Premier League match between Brighton and Bournemouth, both of which play only a few miles apart for example, is no longer a local event. It has acquired the sheen of a global event that attracts the attention of a television audience to be counted in millions thousands of miles away.

Premier League matches are also no longer local from the point of view of the players engaged in them. Players are now attracted from all over the world to ply their trade in the Premier League. One of the earliest beneficiaries of this situation was Kanu Nwankwo, who arrived at the Arsenal in 1999 and became the face of the Premier League in Nigeria which is one reason why that club is likely to have the status of the best supported Premier League club in Nigeria. However, this is apart from the fact that Arsenal then as now played attractive and unforgettable football. In other words, Arsenal at that time was a genuine powerhouse.

One of the major attractions of the global appeal of the Premier League is the diversity of the players that turn out to play for the various clubs in the League. A cursory Google search shows that sixty countries are currently represented by players in the Premier League. It also shows that as many as fifty-seven Nigerians have played with varying degrees of success in the EPL since its inception. There and then, you have fifty-seven reasons why the EPL is followed with such passion in Nigeria.