Guilty Pleasures: Barclays Premier League

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, except in the United States. Our most popular sport is American Football where concussions are the order of the day in the Fall. Plus, we also got Baseball, Basketball, Hockey and other stick and ball sports, plus NASCAR. Soccer in America isn't important because we are so used to violent content that the other sports offer. We don't see the beauty of "The Beautiful Game". We just see Soccer players as overpaid sissies who prance around the pitch, drinking tea and don't score any goals.

It has helped out that the United States national team has had some good moments in the World Cup, we hosted it in 1994, went to the Quarterfinals in 2002 and had one of our guys pounce on the ball and scored a really late goal to make it to the Round of 16. Sadly, this same team has had moments of ineptitude. Finishing dead last in the standings in 1998 and not scoring one single goal in 2006.

Despite all that, I have a lingering Guilty Pleasure. And it's called the Barclays Premier League in England. The Premiership is probably THE TOP league in the world in popularity, TV ratings and money. The teams in the Premiership fight for many Championships in their own association and other tournaments made by UEFA. The players are world class and come from other clubs and countries around the world just to play for a Premiership team. While it doesn't happen a lot, smaller teams do beat the crap out of the more established clubs during the year. The teams are well known around the world and even have some American fans to boot.

The reason I like it is because they have something called Promotion and Relegation. We don't have that in America. If anybody in the major sports leagues in America totally suck, they get the top choice in the Draft next year. In Soccer, if you suck and finish in the bottom 3-4 in the standings, you're shipped back to the division you came from to get to the Premier League! And however finished in the top 2-3 in the other division will be promoted to take your place.

I first heard about the Premier League sometime in late 2005. Some American dude bought Manchester United and that sort of got me interested. The Premier League didn't have any games shown in the U.S. at the time, so I just kept my eye on it through Wikipedia over the years. And it seems like it's either Manchester United or Chelsea who win the title. Being the richest league in the world allows for the same teams to win the damn thing all the time.

This year, we got ESPN showing a few games while those jerks at Fox Sports show the majority of games on their Soccer channel that people have to pay for! >< GIVE THE CHANNEL TO US FOR FREE!!!!!!!!

The reason I keep an eye on the Premier League more closely now is because Liverpool F.C. was recently bought by the owners of the Boston Red Sox, John Henry and Tom Werner. These two men... I worship the ground they walk on! They were instrumental in bringing the Curse of the Bambino to an end in 2004 when the Red Sox FINALLY won the World Series! And they won it again in 2007! I hope they do a better job than the last two retards who owned Liverpool and nearly dragged it to ruin. Those two ruin everything they get their hands on! One of them nearly destroyed Richard Petty Motorsports in NASCAR! ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

*passes out*

Well I'm a Liverpool supporter so I hope they do something good for the team other than utterly ruining it as the previous owners have done, seriously. But this year... I do NOT see Chelsea running away with it. I think City or even Arsenal will have a better chance to beat United than them, seeing how they are spiralling downwards lately.

Also... there is no relegation in the US? Wow XD Here in Spain, where Madrid and Barcelona also fight for La Liga every other year, the fight to escape the relegation is the only thing that makes the last three weeks watchable (and the fight for promotion on the Second Division is sometimes more entertaining that the Liga middle class).

Went;bt53520 said:

Well I'm a Liverpool supporter so I hope they do something good for the team other than utterly ruining it as the previous owners have done, seriously. But this year... I do NOT see Chelsea running away with it. I think City or even Arsenal will have a better chance to beat United than them, seeing how they are spiralling downwards lately.

Also... there is no relegation in the US? Wow XD Here in Spain, where Madrid and Barcelona also fight for La Liga every other year, the fight to escape the relegation is the only thing that makes the last three weeks watchable (and the fight for promotion on the Second Division is sometimes more entertaining that the Liga middle class).

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I know that Chelsea have been losing greatly right now. I think Wolverhampton beat them and those guys are at the bottom of the table. I'm actually surprised on how well Manchester City is playing this year. I have seen them end up in the middle of the table most years. But Man Utd has only played 20 games so far and they haven't lost a game yet.

You said you are a Liverpool supporter? You better start praying that they get on a hit streak because the bottom half of the table is real close. 11th on down to 20th is only separated by 5 points. We might actually see a Great Escape, so to speak.

Yes, there is no relegation in the U.S. Teams here are franchised meaning something like Promotion and Relegation can't work here. The worst thing that could happen to a team is if somebody buys it and moves the team to a new city. Otherwise if your team sucks, you get the first pick in the draft next year. While we do have lower leagues for all sports in America, they aren't really connected like Soccer leagues in Europe.