For the good of football in the top flight I hope they continue to lead the way and break the dominance of the perceived Big 4 in the eyes of Sky......it will be a good thing and bring football back to how it was before Sky & Uefa threw ludicrous sums at the privileged few when every side in division 1 believed they had a chance of winning the league title........ We were in this position in 75/76 and I doubt I'll see it again in my lifetime when the R's could take on the best and have a chance of winning the league.....fecking Easter Saturday at Norwich.......The Foxes fans should make the most of it as who knows when it might happen again for them.....
There was one annoying twit but last season, in a thread about who we'd like to go down, most of us wished them well and they came back with appreciation so group hug all round and good luck to them!
Following on from the first post Re. Gambia and following abroad A following in the developing world tends to depend on the marketing of a club (are they on TV a lot, who is their sponsor, is their a 'brand') and also who their star players are, is their anyone to put on a poster, a shirt, who the fans will love? As football took off in Africa and Asia was the time when the game really became global due to TV deals and star players coming to the Premier League. Right now in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, China, India etc, most fans will follow Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal, as at the time they were introduced to football, these were the teams who were marketed enough to have cheap knock off shirts available, on tv a lot and winning games. (A lot of people also 'follow' Real Madrid or Barca, but almost always have an EPL team too). This is still relatively intact today as though there is a lot of glory chasing down here, most fans are pretty loyal (liverpool are still very popular in Kenya and Uganda). But about 10 years ago, you would see the odd Chelsea shirt appear, then more as they brought in Drogba and Essien and then the same with City and Spurs when Bale was on fire. However it was never as much as I had expected, city fans int he big sports bars of Nairobi, Dar or Kampala are very few, as are Chelsea. Someone like Leicester if they were to win the league, I would expect a similar number of new 'fans' down here to perhaps when Man City first won the league. You'll get the glory hunters but not many of them. The main catalyst would be that if someone in China started making the knock off shirts en mass which are everywhere in African towns and markets, as without these then no one would follow a club they couldnt wear the shirt of. If Leicester were to sign a Yaya Toure or Rooney, then I am sure that replica shirts would suddenly become worth copying, which in turn would lead to a lot of 'new fans' in the developing world, but on the back of one league win, I doubt they will affect things too much. Just my two cents from Africa! Ric
And from that it seems that having a billion worldwide fans means little unless they are making you rich by buying official branded merchandise. Which they aren't. They'll help fill the stadium when you go on tour in the summer I suppose.
Good post there Kampala. I think a team that illustrates the point well are Blackburn, they won the PL with a team full of names plus a big-name manager, yet they couldn't build on it and eventually disappeared back to where they were before their one-hit wonder. Might be slightly different as there is much more worldwide screening of the PL but apart from the country of their owners Leicester would have little profile against the big boys...
Just read there's a punter who put £5 on Leicester at the start of the season to win the Premier League at odds of 5,000/1, he faces some serious squeaky bum time...
I would love to see Leicester win it. But I fear they will lose against City and probably only get a point against Arsenal. I feel it is City who are finishing stronger, although would love it to be down to the final game of the season, just for entertainment of the neutrals.
I've occasionally thought about a fiver at start of season for QPR to get to Wembley in League or FA cup but.......
They are serious contenders after their win today, good on them, about time a team come from no where and show the top 4 it's not about all the money.
