Almost thirty years ago, in August 1992, Sky marked the new Premier League era with an advert so ’90s it could have come doused in Lynx Africa – Simple Minds, Vinnie Jones having fun in a shower, Tony Daley pumping iron and Darren Anderton doing sit-ups.
ing sit-ups. Careering into view amid a backdrop of half-built post-Taylor Report stadia, garish blazers and cheerleaders emerging from some oversized Christmas crackers, the replacement of the former First Division was barely recognisable from today’s multi-million pound behemoth full of the world’s best players.
Talk of a breakaway from the Football League wasn’t anything new. The Big Five clubs (Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs) had first discussed the possibility of the split with Greg Dyke – then the managing director of ITV and later the FA chairman – in October 1990, and a deal was finally reached with the entire 22-team division in February 1992. The top tier would now retain all of the money from a yet-to-be-agreed exclusive television rights deal, instead of having to divide it equally with the rest of the Football League.
For their part, the FA stated they were acting in England’s interests because the new Premier League would be reduced to 20 teams within two years to avoid World Cup exhaustion. They omitted to mention that 14 of those 22 top-flight clubs had already signed up to an independent breakaway anyway. Almost immediately, the PFA threatened to strike, concerned that clubs, not players, would be the only ones to profit.
“To a man, we were all willing to back our union because it was something that would benefit everyone, in the same way you had the miners in the ’70s,” former Sheffield United striker Brian Deane tells FourFourTwo. “They convinced us this was the right thing to do. I don’t really want to talk about the PFA, but I think we were all in the right.”
Tony Cottee, then of Everton, agrees. “I wouldn’t say we were taken advantage of, but there wasn’t a fair split of the cash,” Cottee tells FFT. “We wanted to be fairly rewarded for what we put into the game. The wages compared to what the clubs earned weren’t relative. There was going to be more money in the game, so I don’t think there was anything wrong with it.”
Strike averted, the next stumbling block was the deal for exclusive television rights. With Dyke central to the Premier
