ABSTRACT
The Premier League is well renowned as one of the most popular and successful football competitions in the world. Across nine months of every year, 380 matches are beamed out to over 720 million homes in 212 territories. An estimated global adult audience of 4.7 billion watched the 217,000 hours of coverage broadcast last season, while in England, domestic television viewing figures set new records. As well as being the world’s most watched league the Premier League has also enjoyed attendance growth inside the stadiums with utilization at 92.6 percent. Research shows that the Premier League has 935 million worldwide followers with 615 million supporting a specific club (Sport+Markt, 2012). On the field the Premier League’s 20th season proved to be the most exciting and competitive so far. Manchester City claimed the title with Sergio Aguerro’s last gasp winner to leapfrog their neighbors, Manchester United, in a record breaking season for goals scored – 1,066 in total with 19 hat-tricks. Marc Albrighton recorded the 20,000 goal in Premier League history and Chelsea’s Champions League win ensured England was top of the UEFA League coefficient for the fifth season in a row. The home grown player criteria is starting to deliver results as clubs look to develop talent through their Academy and into the top end of the professional game. In 2011/12 55 percent of Premier League players were home grown, a 24 percent increase on 2009/10.
