In Australia, you’d be forgiven for thinking that sports with oval-shaped balls are more popular. Of course, we Aussies certainly do have a love affair with both codes of rugby and the AFL, but this doesn’t mean that soccer (don’t let your British friends hear you call it as such!) is pushed into the shadows.
The emergence of the Socceroos as a credible force on the world stage likely has something to do with this surge in popularity. Making an appearance at the last three FIFA World Cups, including a best-ever round of 16 berth in 2006, soccer has never been more popular in the land Down Under.
A Premier occasion
Away from the international game though, one league in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to pure entertainment, sporting drama and intrigue from around the world, and that’s the English Premier League. It’s by far and away the most watched league in the world, being broadcast in a staggering 212 countries with a global TV audience of 4.7 billion.
The English Premier League is broadcast in a staggering 212 countries with a global TV audience of 4.7 billion.
According to Roy Morgan Research, 1,677,000 Australian pay to watch the thrill and spills of the English Premier League on television each year. That’s a big proportion of the population, but with the excitement that each season promises, this is pretty understandable.
A fairytale finish
Take the current season, for example. When it began last August, minnows Leicester City were given a 5,000-1 chance of lifting the famous trophy after narrowly escaping relegation the season previous. At the time of writing, they are just three wins away from a historic success, leaving traditional Premier League heavyweights such as Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in their wake.
To put a little perspective on such a feat, BBC Sport featured a list of things that were just as likely as Leicester winning the league when the season began. For example, you can also get odds of 5,000-1 on Elvis Presley to be found alive (he died way back in 1977), the Loch Ness Monster to be proven to exist, and for Christmas Day to be the warmest day of the year in England.
Anyone who has ever visited Britain over Yuletide will tell you that the weather is a dull, grey affair (though it sometimes snows), but the sun never, ever makes an appearance. That’s how incredible Leicester’s feat will be if they were to win.
At Motive Travel, we’re looking to organise travel packages to the English Premier League at some point in the new season. Though this is still in the very early planning stages, watch the Motive Travel space for further developments, or get in touch with us to find out more – we hope that you’re as excited as we are!
