The 2010-2011 season is over and the City of Birmingham now find themselves with only one Birmingham Premiership football side, Aston Villa, following the unfortunate relegation of Birmingham Premiership Football side, Birmingham City.

In our article last year we questioned if promoted Birmingham City, who finished an unexpected ninth, would simply be just another Hull City and find themselves fighting off possible relegation in 2010-2011? Is this the fate that awaits West Bromwich Albion in 2011-2012?

The 2009-2010 season saw the West Midlands represented by five clubs, which made up 25% of all Premiership teams, this year we are down to 20% with the representation being Aston Villa, Stoke City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, who avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth and West Bromwich Albion, who having finished in eleventh place in the table and hopefully appear to have now stopped being the yo yo team of the Premiership/Championship. However, see our comment in the previous paragraph.

It is again hearty congratulation to Aston Villa who just scraped home on the last day of the season as the highest placed West Midlands team by finishing in eleventh position, although this was some six positions lower than last season and also to Stoke City for their appearance in FA Cup Final at Wembley, but regrettably as runners up.

We at Active sincerely wish Birmingham City a quick return and hope that the recent appointment of new manager Chris Hughton will quickly reap dividends by bringing the West Midlands Premiership League representation back to five clubs and 25%.

The move across the city to Aston Villa by Alex McLeish, former Birmingham City manager, has led to an outcry from furious Villa supporters and he will not be given much time to prove them wrong. Early success, hoewever, will perhaps change their minds, we will see?

Will West Bromwich Albion's February 2011 appointment of Head Coach, Roy Hodgson, with his proven managerial record, apart from perhaps his last club Liverpool, continue to drive them forward and upward?

From a financial point, with only the home team only benefiting from gate money income, local derbies produce far more income than that received from the visits of the remaining Premiership teams who bring far fewer travelling supporters with them. Full ground capacity is virtually guaranteed when the four West Midlands clubs meet.

 At the end of the day let’s hope we see all the local teams doing well, playing good football and be, from a spectator point, trouble free.  To the fans, enjoy the games, the banter and whatever the results, be proud of your team. When things go wrong, accept the leg pull and sarcasm because the next time it will probably be your turn to have a laugh at your mate’s expense.

The Premiership Football League carries, without doubt, the largest following of supporters/followers World Wide and is probably the World’s most lucrative. This can be seen by its ability to attract players from the world over and the salaries paid to some of its finest.

With the World following the Premiership League receives it is hard to accept that the first Premiership League match was only played approximately  19 years ago on 15 August 1992.

At its inauguration in 1992 there were just eleven overseas players, including Irish, in the Premiership, in 2007 this figure had risen to 250.

Because of this up surge in oversees talent it has led many to believe that this in itself has played a major role in the low number of English born players appearing in the Premiership, thus causing a major shortfall in the skilful and talented players we have available for national selection.

An example of this is perhaps the position of goalkeeper, from the 1960’s to the late 90’s England and the rest of the UK International sides probably operated with the finest goalkeepers in the World. Today most of the premiership sides field foreign keepers, with just four or five of English origin.

We have also seen an influx of foreign managers bringing with them perhaps a more continental approach to the way the game is played. We have also seen a similar approach by the English National team officials who have, on the last two occasions, appointed foreign managers.

With regards to Premiership finance and Premiership team payments, sponsorship and television rights have played a major role. In 1993 Carling paid £12million to obtain the sponsorship rights and the league became known as the FA Carling Premiership. Carling then renewed for a further four years with a 300% bid increase. In 2001 Barclaycard took over the sponsorship following a bid of £48million over three years, followed by Barclay’s. Barclays again renewed the sponsorship in 2007 with a bid of £65.8million. With Swansea’s promotion to the Premierships via the play offs in 2011 it has been estimated that the value of this promotion to the club was in the region of £90million. 

The first television rights were awarded to Sky TV at a cost of £191million pounds for five seasons, to televise Premiership matches for three seasons from 2007 – 2010 Sky and the now defunked Setanta paid £1.7 billion.

Even with the sort of income Premiership teams receive from sponsorship and TV deals it is hard to believe that quite a number of them are heavily in debt with many of them only in existence because of the money their billionaire foreign owners are able to invest. When you also take into account that all of the costs associated with policing Birmingham Premiership football crowds, outside the ground, are borne by the tax payer and not the club, it is hard to see how most clubs would survive if they had to stand on their own two feet.

Perhaps it is time that FIFA brought a halt to this ridiculous situation and introduced rules making clubs survive without such investment.

                 PREMIERSHIP FINAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE TABLE SEASON 2010-2011