Three lions on the shirt, grassroots underfunded…. A revealing analysis of the state of the English men’s game.

A top-to-bottom look at England’s national game, from one of the UK’s leading business economists.

The Premier League is the most commercially successful football league in history, the self-proclaimed ‘best league in the world’. But success has come at a cost, unbalancing the English game to a profound and damaging degree.

Football’s stumbling response to COVID-19 and the European Super League disaster are just the most recent examples. It is estimated that more than two thirds of the country’s 92 professional clubs are loss-making; payments to agents each year regularly total more than the combined income of all 44 clubs in Leagues 1 and 2; supporters have been squeezed to the limit; racist incidents are on the rise; grassroots facilities are in a dreadful state; and failed World Cup bids have severely weakened England’s standing in the global game. The national team’s performance at Euro 2020 can’t paper over the cracks.

There is an alternative. In this revealing and eye-opening analysis, leading economist Mark Gregory reveals the breadth and depth of the problems facing our national men’s game, and shows us a way to bring football home for good.

Author Biography

Mark Gregory spent the last ten years as Ernst & Young’s chief economist in the UK. In a career spanning over three decades he has advised governments and businesses in over forty countries on economic policy issues, specialising in the liberalisation, regulation and commercialisation of the communications sector. Prior to joining EY he held international roles at IBM and PwC. He founded and led EY’s sports economics practice, which has advised the Premier League, the ECB, the Union Cycliste Internationale and the Rugby World Cup on the economic issues affecting their sports. He was recently called as an expert to give evidence on economics and regulation to the Fan-led Review of Football Governance. He is a Director of the Centre for Towns and a member of the UK Government’s Trade Advisory Group on investment. He is a lifelong Stoke City supporter.

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