020: English Premier League Soccer - Inside the Global Obsession

It’s not just soccer—it’s the English Premier League, and it hits different. We're talking chants that give you chills, rivalries fueled by history and hate, and a system that punishes losers with relegation. Our guest gives us the ultimate English Premier League breakdown: how fans pick their team, what makes the league so global, and how much money really controls the game. From pre-match rituals to lifelong grudges, English Premier League fandom isn’t just a hobby—it’s a way of life. Whether you’re a diehard supporter or just curious about it all, this episode has something for you. 

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Chapters

• 09:48 - Soccer Drama: Not Just Ted Lasso
• 19:59 - Rivalries: More Than Just Banter
• 30:05 - Relegation: Like Getting Fired, Publicly
• 30:50 - Money, Moves, and Massive Salaries
• 39:24 - Premier League: Earth’s Favorite Soap Opera
• 42:03 - Trinity Rodman Stealing the Show

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00.846)
So I think the beautiful thing about the Premier League is there are so many different teams over there in England. basically every town has its own team and these people follow these teams religiously. There's really nothing to compare it to, I think, in American sports. It'd be like, you know, in Tennessee, Nashville having a team, Knoxville having a team, Chattanooga having a team, Memphis having a team, and then even some small towns in between all having their own soccer team.

And instead of everyone just cheering for, hey, what's the best team in that state or that area? Everyone cheers for their team of their hometown.

Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn. And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 1 (01:07.394)
The English Premier League isn't just a soccer league, it's a global obsession. Whether you call it soccer or football, one thing is clear. The Premier League has a grip on fans like few other leagues in the world. But what exactly makes it feel different? What exactly makes it more intense? To help us unpack all that and more, we're joined by Vito later today, a long time English Premier League super fan.

and armchair expert who knows his stuff. We're gonna cover everything from fan culture and fierce rivalries to the financial side of things and what makes this league so special. But before we get in to that, we're starting off with the hat trick. So Teryn and I agreed on the topic ahead of time, which is the top three best athlete nicknames, but we have not compared lists until right now. So Teryn, kick us off.

Okay, this one is for my dad. He is going to love it. It is an athlete that we used to watch movies about growing up and he is one of the coolest, most interesting basketball players I think of all time. There's a movie about him and it is Pete Marovitch or Pistol Pete Marovitch. He was known for his quick shooting and flashy play and we actually mentioned him in one of our episodes early on because

think what it was. Most points. Most points. Was it like Caitlin Clark had beat his points or something? Yes, but he didn't have a three point. Correct. He did this in the era before there was a three point line. So just a fun little fact about Pistol Pete. He was so cool. He just like would carry a basketball around with him everywhere he went. So he would like dribble it on train tracks. And he just, you know, he was one of those people who could just do anything with the basketballs.

was always holding one. So I think that's why my dad always loved him as a basketball coach and player himself. I love that. I'm heading back to something that we've talked about in some episode as well because my favorite athlete nickname is Babe Ruth, but I have all these nicknames from the Sandlot movie, one of my favorites. Okay. So some of his nicknames, he had so many were Sultan of Swat, Colossus of Clout, Great Bambino. Bambino is the Italian word for baby.

Speaker 1 (03:31.566)
I don't know, great Italian baby. Okay. So he had all of these nicknames and I came to find out that back in the 1920s, reporters really loved headlines with alliterations. So, you know, like two words in a row, they the first same first letter, which is why Sultan of Swat and Colossus of Clout came to be because the reporters were looking for

Ways to talk about how amazing he was using alliterations. They didn't even have chat GPT back then. I know just their brains. How in the world did they make it work? But yeah, so they were, I mean, an amazing baseball player, but also some really ferocious nicknames. Yeah, for sure. Okay. I am going to flop over to football. Talking of alliterations. I see what you did there. Well done. Not on purpose, but I felt it. I felt right.

Um, and I'm going to go to primetime Dion Sanders. Sanders earned this nickname for his electrifying plays that were must watched during prime time games. Also well known for being a coach for his son who had a rough time this year in the NFL draft. Wait, did you say what was Dion's nickname? Primetime. Oh, oh, I thought you were talking about like his

TV broadcasting. Yeah, no, his nickname was primetime. Girl, I would love that nickname. yeah. Walk in the room. Here's primetime. I love that. Okay. My next one, I'm sticking with our theme for today. Soccer slash football. And he's just one of my favorites and he's my son's favorite player. So I've got to head over to Lionel Messi. His nickname was the flea. He's actually somewhat small for a soccer player.

I was talking to my son about this and he immediately needed to know what the average height of soccer players is. It's around five, nine to six foot by the way. could see my son calculating. small, generally humans. compared to other pro athletes. I could see my son calculating like how many years until he'd be the average height of a professional soccer player. Anyway, but Messi was called the flea because he actually had a growth hormone deficiency when he was little. his family

Speaker 1 (05:43.278)
was on the poor side of things and so it was hard to get all of the medicines that he needed. So he just sort of naturally ended up maybe a little bit shorter than he would have been without that sort of deficiency. So, which is one of the reasons why he was called the Flea, because that's small, but also called the Flea because on the soccer field he is impossible to catch. You know, his playing style, he's so agile and quick and jumping and athletic. So the Flea was Lionel's nickname.

That's cool. Yeah. My number one favorite athlete nickname is my favorite athlete, Kobe Bryant. And he was the black mamba, which is obviously a snake. he very poisonous snake. Yeah. Yeah. He adopted this nickname to reflect his lethal precision and focus on the court akin to a deadly snake. Rest in peace. Every time I mentioned Kobe Bryant, I'm just going to say,

rest in peace. Yeah, please do. And Gianna. I'm sticking with basketball for my third and final favorite athlete nickname. The female Michael Jordan is the nickname for Miss Cheryl Swoops. I'm dying to do a spotlight on Cheryl or Sue Bird. So stay tuned for that. I'm going to find a way to fit that in this season. You heard it here first. Stay tuned. Yeah. A little teaser that I don't have.

decided quite yet. But anyway, she was one of the WNBA's original stars. And right when she joined the league, she was so good. People started comparing her to MJ pretty quickly and that stuck. Nike even gave her the first ever signature shoe for a woman athlete. It was the Air Swoops. kind of, know, yes, her, also related a little bit to Michael Jordan. So, yeah. So the female Michael Jordan, Cheryl Swoops.

Teryn, did you have a nickname as an athlete? No, but you know, my name's Teryn. So whenever I would meet like a new coach or something and people were having a hard time with my name, I'd be like, I'm gonna be the one Teryn up the court. And were they like, ooh, let's They always did the exact same thing, which was they rolled their eyes and shook their head and giggled under their breath. Well, you know what?

Speaker 1 (08:09.518)
At least you tried like a effort. Yeah. What about you? It was a little make an impression. Okay. I did, but not for like a really flattering reason. We were practicing headers soccer. We were practicing headers in the mud one day. So couldn't really do a lot of running. I don't know. And I was just not about diving into this muddy gravel. There was like gravel in there, you know? And so I got the name Barbie.

Oh no. Not for any aesthetically pleasing reason, but just for a diva reason. Not that divas are bad, but more for like a, yeah, anyway. So I was just kind of stuck in not a really ideal way, but I embraced it it was totally fine. There was rocks in the mud. It doesn't sound fun either, but you sacrifice the body. I mean, I guess I'm just not that level of athlete. Yeah.

Not tearing up the court, guess. I wasn't tearing up the soccer field or that muddy gravel that day. Anyway, nicknames.

Speaker 1 (09:10.072)
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All right. Today we are diving into the world of Premier League soccer and we brought in some of my family for this one. Joining us is my cousin Vito, who has been yelling at referees through the TV and somehow managing to wake up early for matches like it's nothing. He's one of the biggest soccer fans I know. Or should I say football?

Probably should say football. And honestly, the reason that I know the Premier League isn't just some fancy British way of saying really good soccer. Vito, welcome to Almost Fans.

Thank you so much, Teryn and Ambre. Pleasure to be here. Really excited to just talk a little bit about the Premier League. I know I've had some heated debates with Teryn before just about how soccer or football is the best sport in the world in my opinion. I know she doesn't tend to agree, but maybe we'll be able to change some minds over here.

Speaker 1 (10:41.144)
That's shocking to me. never have a heated debate with Teryn. So that's so, so shocking. Hold on. Before we dive into soccer, I've been dying to ask, you're the first of Teryn's family members to join us. Can you please tell us the most embarrassing story that you have about Teryn?

Gosh, I was not prepared for this one.

There's no stories out there like me pooping my pants in a train station like there is about veto. So I think I'm safe.

Well, I'm glad she had that one handy.

She just threw you under the bus so hard.

Speaker 2 (11:16.046)
Yeah, unfortunately, that is true.

Okay, but-

Yeah, I wish I had a good story of Teryn doing something similar, but I can't say that I do.

because I'm an angel. We're just going to give you time to think about it. At whatever point you've come up with an embarrassing story, please pause us and let us know.

I don't know if that's true.

Speaker 2 (11:36.398)
All right, something will come up, I'm sure.

Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. We're so, so glad that you're here with us. Let's kick things off pun intended with the basics. So what makes premier league fandom feel different than rooting for American teams? What's the vibe, the energy, the rituals, all that.

So I think the, beautiful thing about the premier league is there are so many different teams over there in England. And basically every town has its own team and these people follow these teams religiously. so there's really nothing to compare it to, I think in American sports, if you think about every little town, like let's say in Wisconsin or Tennessee, where we're where I'm from, it'd be like, you know, in Tennessee, Nashville, having a team.

Knoxville having a team, Chattanooga having a team, Memphis having a team, and then even some small towns in between all having their own soccer team. And instead of everyone just cheering for, hey, what's the best team in that state or that area? Everyone cheers for their team of their hometown. And so it doesn't matter if you're in the premier league or you're in, you know, one of the fifth divisions down, these people are diehard cheering for these teams. there's a whole lot of just energy and emotion behind it that we don't have in sports here, I think.

I'm thinking about the money too. I mean, to have a stadium and all of the accoutrement that go along with having a professional team in the US, like it's a big freaking deal. So, which is probably the reason why we don't have as many professional teams in one given state, for example. But that's amazing to think about how every, you know, moderate sized place, you know, city, town, village in England has their own like hometown team. That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (13:21.474)
That makes it lot easier to be a diehard fan if it's close by and you can get to games and maybe you see the players out and about more often. It feels just more home, more local.

Yeah, I think so. and I'm sure we'll touch on this later on here, but just the whole promotion and relegation. It's like everyone's team that they're rooting for, there's something they're cheering for, whether that's to stay in the premier league, to get to the premier league, to get to that next league. and so there's always something to fight for. And these teams just, and these fan bases just get behind it with everything they have. And they go to every single game.

And it's just a very different culture, I think, than what we have here in the U S with a lot of our sports where, know, whether it's football or basketball or baseball, people get behind their teams, but it's still just a different thing where it's like, Hey, one year we got a great team. We're trying to win the super bowl or whatever it may be, but the next year, Hey, this is just kind of a dud season. We're just going for draft picks. You know, it's, it's a very different vibe.

It almost feels like life or death for a lot of these cities. Like this is all they have to live for. Is that kind of how it feels for them there?

Yeah, it definitely is. Have you guys heard of Welcome to Wrexham? Yeah. So if you haven't watched it, definitely check it out. It does a fantastic job of just breaking down the whole leagues and everything that they have going on over there in England and just kind of helping you understand what it's all about. Because basically the whole idea with that show is you have Rob McElhaney and Ryan Reynolds who basically go over and buy a fifth tier soccer team. So like the fifth division.

Speaker 2 (14:57.154)
down and their whole idea is like, they want to kind of see if they can kind of pump money into it, take over the team and what can they do with it, right? Can they get that team up into the premier league? And it's just kind of showing every season what they're doing and they're slowly working their way up the leagues. And this, you know, this fan base for Wrexham that they're, this team that they're a part of has been around for over a hundred years. It's an old team. And they've been stuck in this fifth division for a long time.

And so they finally are able to get them out of this and starting to climb them up the league. So it's, it's really fun to watch and just see how these, these fans get invested in it.

that. Hey, quick pause veto. live in Tennessee, but I hear Midwest in your voice. You must be from Michigan.

I'm from, so I grew up in Chicago actually. Okay. So I grew up in Wheaton, Illinois, suburb just 30 miles straight west of Chicago. So yeah, I definitely am not from Tennessee. I do not have this Southern accent.

I heard Sackers and I was like, okay, wait, Tennessee, this is not, it's not squaring for me here. It's not tracking. Also, I should clarify that Vito isn't technically my cousin. He is married to my cousin. So we didn't grow up. His wife did grow up in Michigan with me and we're 10 months apart. So we were like best friends growing up. Okay. So what you're saying is for future episode Vito, you need to talk to your wife about the embarrassing Taron stories. Now I'm now.

Speaker 2 (16:18.414)
Well, I think I do have one that I've heard from my wife. Apparently back in high school, Kylie said, you know, Teryn had her emotions back then. What? surprise you a little bit. But I guess they had a fear factor birthday party where they did all kinds of things like they had to eat gross concoctions. And apparently one of the things was they had a dock at their grandparents' house that they lived up on a lake in Northern Michigan.

dish.

Speaker 2 (16:45.526)
And I think one of the things was they had to walk around the dock through all the muck and algae and seaweed and everything. my gosh. Apparently, Teryn didn't like it too much. So she was crying throughout the whole event.

I

Speaker 1 (17:01.64)
Okay, I have to defend myself a little bit because I don't think I was in high school. I think this was probably early teen, maybe middle school. No, this is Vito's story. This is a high schooler. Fair enough. I was definitely a senior in high school. Okay, good. I like that visual much more. got Teryn and I and our collective four children at last summer got stuck in the, my boat died in the middle of this channel. So I had to get in and climb through Chess High.

muck hauling the... And you wanted to cry, didn't you? I did want to cry. I did not cry, although I wasn't a high schooler. And Teryn, Teryn, she just kept feeding snacks to the children. So she did an important part. She's like, I'm not getting in that. And now we know why. Now we know why, because of the birthday party. I PTSD. I love that. Okay. Back to fans. So, okay. So you touched on fans and why they're so diehard. And I cannot wait to watch that Rexam movie.

I don't blame her.

Speaker 1 (17:59.468)
Also because I love Ryan Reynolds. So tell us about Premier League fans. They're known for specifically chants, songs, rooting for the home team. Do you have a favorite chant or song? Maybe it's a team that you like or maybe it's just something funny that some other fans do or say. Do you have a good example?

Yes. So that's another, I think great part of the sport, especially over there is like we talked about the fans, they're all in. So the entire time, you know, it's, the fan's job just as much as it is the team's job to push the team forward, encourage the team and get them playing their best. So you'll see it when you watch games of like, if the fans are not into it, the whole team's just going to kind of not be playing as well. Right. Whereas if the fans are really behind it.

They're cheering like crazy. They're doing their chance. It can really push the team forward for a comeback or to seal up a win or whatever that may be. Um, so I'm a huge Tottenham fan. Fortunately this year Tottenham are terrible. Um, so it's, it hasn't been a great year to be a Tottenham fan. To be fair, it probably hasn't been a great several years.

Vito's a Bears fan so it's tough being him. You're comfortable in this seat though.

I'm used to this. Yeah, this is just the norm. But because I'm a Tottenham fan, obviously I have to love the Tottenham chants. so honestly Tottenham have some pretty basic ones, but when you hear it echoing through the stadium, it's one those things that'll give you chills. And so the biggest Tottenham chant is just, they say, come on you spurs, come on you spurs. And you have the whole stadium.

Speaker 2 (19:37.87)
of 60, 70,000 people just chanting that, screaming it at the top of their lungs. And especially in the beginning of a game when it gets started off, it's just a great way to just get you ready and into the game. And you can just see the players just getting really jumped up about it. And it's just really fun to see. Yes, Tottenham Hotspur. Apparently it's like a chicken, like a rooster. So that's their mascot. It's like a rooster.

Is that their mascot, the spurs?

What is a hot spur?

Speaker 1 (20:06.36)
Mine was like western.

But yeah, it's not like the San Antonio Spurs.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. The hot chicken. Okay. That's amazing. Okay. So rivalries in the premier league are no joke. What are some of the most heated and why do they run so deep?

Well, there's some, there's definitely some heated rivalries in the premier league. and I think a lot of them run deep just because of the history of it, right? You have a lot of these teams that may be cross town rivalries. For example, Tottenham and Arsenal. That game is called the North London Derby. And both these teams are from North London. So it's kind of the whole thing is, know, which is the best team from North London, right? Tottenham fans absolutely hate Arsenal fans. Arsenal fans absolutely hate Tottenham fans.

And, uh, whenever time's playing Arsenal fans are rooting for us to lose. And whenever Arsenal's playing, I'm rooting for them to lose. don't care who they're playing. I just don't want to see them win. Um, and the, and the rival, the rivalries run deep. the games are always just another level because these teams hate each other. And so they get super physical, super aggressive. Um, there's fights that'll break out yellow cards, red cards.

Speaker 1 (21:16.856)
I was just going to ask quickly, is it like, do they actually hate each other or do they just say that for like the fun and the rivalry? You cause I feel like in, in us sports, right? They pretend like they don't like each other, but really off the court, they're all friends and they know each other, like each other. how about Michigan and Ohio? Like y'all hate each other. Yeah, we do. But I I don't know. It's just seems, I feel like that's a better example than in like pro sports.

Yeah, I'd say that's probably a comparable example. They hate each other. if you will not see for the most part, a player that's on Tottenham ever go play for Arsenal and you won't see an Arsenal player go play on Tottenham. It may happen very rarely, but it's, it's, it's very rare.

Okay, so it's that game day, okay? And the game is at Tottenham. Are people fist fighting in the bars? Are they yelling at each other on the way in? Like, what is the vibe like when that rivalry is going down?

Yes, you definitely do have that. so in England, they have what's called firms. Each team will have a firm, which is kind of like a gang for the team. And literally it's just a bunch of hooligans that go around before the games and basically fight the firms from the other teams.

That's so exciting. Literally never heard of that before. That is absolutely brand new news for me. Yeah. It's just a bunch of dudes who want to get in who want to drink beer and get in fights.

Speaker 2 (22:34.188)
Yeah, literally just a bunch of hooligans. Another good movie for you to check out, Green Street Hooligans. It's all about basically this. It's all about the firms of these soccer teams and these football clubs. And it's intense, but it's really based on like real events and how it really is over there.

Wow, that's amazing. Okay, so Teryn says I say this all the time, but I have a lot of questions about promotion and relegation. So it sounds both terrifying and thrilling all at once. How does this actually?

It is thrilling. And that's honestly one of the reasons I love it. So the way it works is there's basically five main like professional divisions over in England. So you have the National League, you have the English League Two, you have the English League One, you have the Championship, and then you have the Premier League. The Premier League is the top league that everyone wants to get into, right? That's where all the money is. That's where, you know, those are the best teams in the world. A team that's in the National League, that fifth division can

work their way all the way up to the premier league over five seasons or however long it takes. And each league has basically different requirements and a different amount of teams will be promoted or relegated each year. But typically the way it works like for the premier league, for example, is the bottom three teams every single season. So they play 38 games and the bottom three that finish with the lowest amount of points will get relegated and dropped to the championship, the league below. The top.

Two teams from the championship will get automatic promotion to the Premier League and then basically teams three through six, I believe, will go and do a playoff game to see whichever one. spot. Exactly, that last spot to get promoted.

Speaker 1 (24:24.046)
Okay, so it's like a pyramid pyramid and the English Premier League is the top. That's very confusing because then the Championship League is the second one, even though it sounds like they should be. Premier sounds cool, but Championship sounds like they should be the top of the pyramid. But actually Premier League is up there. How fascinating.

Yep. Yeah, I guess a good way to think about it is like it's the championship league to get into the premier league. Like the final. Yeah, exactly. But there's so much money involved obviously like in the premier league is a whole nother level. so these teams like really are trying to fight and get into the premier league. And if they get into it, they want to stay there obviously. but I mean, unfortunately a lot of those teams will get dropped and won't stay very long.

steps.

Speaker 1 (25:07.916)
Yeah, that was going to be my question was how often does a team get bumped up to the premier league and then immediately right back down to the championship league.

It happens very often. In fact, this year, I think all the teams were just really recently promoted that are gonna probably be dropped back down. And so it happens all the time. And the reason for that is it's hard. You're playing against these teams that are worth billions of dollars. And if you can get up there and try to compete with them, you need to almost revamp your entire team if you can get to the Premier League.

because you need better players to be able to compete. If you just try to come with like the same group of players that won you the championship league before, it's probably not gonna be good enough to get you through and get you to stay in the Premier League.

So my question on this is, are there like a core group of teams that are pretty much just always in the Premier League and what are they, if there are?

Yes. So you'll have randomly teams that'll drop down that are like staples to the premier league. It does happen randomly and usually they're able to get back up. but yeah, so I'd say like your, your top, call them the big six, which are Manchester United, Manchester city, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and then Tottenham. Typically those are teams that are finishing, they call them the big six because they're usually finishing around top six. However,

Speaker 2 (26:31.406)
You'll randomly get a season where one of those teams does terrible like this year, Tottenham's in 16th place.

How many total teams are there in the Premier League? Okay. So you're still good, but only by one spot. 18 or two spots, 18, 19, 20 are the ones that would get relegated at the end of the season. Woof. Are you scared? mean-

20 teams.

Speaker 2 (26:44.183)
Yeah, essentially.

Speaker 2 (26:50.957)
Exactly.

more, we're officially safe. have enough points to be safe, but I got nervous there for a second. I'm not going to lie. But there's a lot of, you'll have randomly like teams like Newcastle, Aston Villa. Those are typically like staple Premier League teams that right now they're actually really good. like, they're battling for the top four right now. However, there's been times where Newcastle got relegated that just pretty recently and same with Aston Villa and had to have a couple of seasons down in the championship before they were able to get back up.

That's funny because those teams don't sound familiar to me at all. The six you named off. Does it change the viewing experience when they get bumped down to the championship league for you and for everybody? Or are you still just as passionate even though they got relegated because you're like, we just got to get

If you're a passionate fan for a team, you're, you'll figure out a way to watch it. and actually ESPN does air championship games so you can watch them now. It used to be like, you wouldn't even be able to watch a lot of those games. It'd be really tough to find them, but it's grown so much over here that like ESPN has the championship. NBC sports has the premier league. So you can find ways to watch it now pretty easily. But yeah, I mean, if you're a diehard fan, like you'd get dropped to the championship, it's going to really stink, but you better.

be getting behind your team and hoping you can get them back up into the Premier League. That's the whole goal.

Speaker 1 (28:14.958)
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My brain keeps like when I hear you say drop down to the championship, it's so hard to like train my mind to think that that's not the top tier. Okay. So I have a question. I'm the owner or the manager or the coach of a team that gets promoted from the championship league up to the English premier league. Do I automatically get more money? Cause now I have more broadcasting rights. Do I get more money from the league? Like am I helped at

all financially, you know, because now I got to get new players. Like you said, my team's got to be better than it was because we're in a better league. Is there anything that helps those teams once they get to the English Premier League or are kind of just still on their own?

Yeah, so there's definitely a lot more money involved because like you said, broadcasting rights. I I don't know what the exact dollar amounts are, but as soon as you get into the Premier League, they divvy up a lot of those broadcasting rights and that money and it's immediately millions of dollars more. The other thing is ticket sales. those teams can now charge more for tickets. And now those teams, for example, you go from playing against other championship sides to now you're going to be playing against teams like Manchester United and Manchester City and Liverpool.

Speaker 2 (30:05.134)
probably sell those tickets for a lot more. So there's a lot more money involved and it's millions of dollars, if not even tens of millions of dollars. So it's a huge difference. And so that does help these teams, but it's still very difficult for them to be able to battle it out against these teams that have been in the premier league for decades, right? Who are worth just a lot more money.

Since we're on the money talk, we had another episode where we talked about MLS and how, I mean, they just aren't able to pay their players as much as they are over in England and all that. how do, and you can be broad about this, cause I'm sure it varies, but how does paying for players work? Are there salary caps? Are there restrictions? Different things like that. think

people are interested in knowing like, is free for all? Could they just pay whoever, however much money or are there some specific rules? We love a good money talk.

It's a good question, honestly. So there are regulations in place and it's called, they have financial fair play rules and it's across all of Europe. But basically the whole idea of it is you have to be bringing in enough money to be paying out wages and transfer fees for players. can't, you can't just have basically an investor come in and then just spend a crazy amount of money that you can't show that you actually bring in enough revenue to support that. And teams do.

spend more than they technically should be. And a lot of times what will happen is FIFA will come down and crack down on them and they end up getting fined or they'll end up losing points in the table. So you could have a team that may be on track to win the Premier League, but something comes out that they were being sketchy, paying out money that they didn't have. And FIFA will come in and dock them basically and take points away from them in the table. But yes, if you're a team that is able to bring in way more money because you've been in the Premier League, you're winning the league.

Speaker 2 (31:55.424)
in the champions league, you're winning things. You're selling jerseys worldwide because you have a huge following. You have a huge stadium where you could bring in a ton of revenue through ticket sales. Then you're naturally going to have a lot more money that you could spend on the best players, whether that's bringing them in and just paying transfer fees or just wages that you could pay those players. Yes. And this is another great thing that I love about football. So.

Can you tell me what a transfer fee is?

Speaker 2 (32:21.72)
different from like American sports where it's typically like a draft, right? Or you make trades with teams. There's some trading that goes on, but mostly it all comes down to transfer fees, where basically a player will have, let's say, three years left in their contract. And if another club or another team wants to come and buy that player, well, they'll have like a, basically a clause, a buyout clause, essentially. And you'll have a lot of players that just to...

get the player, not even counting their salary or anything, these teams will have to pay another team $100 million just for the player to get them to break their contract. that's not the most expensive in history, I think was Neymar. And I think he was like $230 something million.

And I went to the team, like the team got that. That's insane.

And then on top of that, the club will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, whatever, for this player. And then they're going have to pay the player crazy wages to get the player to agree to come to their team.

What are crazy wages? Like what are some of the most highest paid players and what are they making roughly?

Speaker 2 (33:29.865)
I would say typical on like a good team, like a good premier league player is probably making anywhere from 50 to $400,000 a week or pounds a week. However, you have some players that would get these crazy like Mbappe or Ronaldo went over to the Saudi Arabia league. And I think he was, it was like $200 million a year or something like that, that he was making.

Just saying.

Crazy money, Some of these guys are just, it's insane how much money they're making.

thinking of right now, just going back a little bit to promotion and relegation, what I want to ask you about is maybe an underdog story that you know of, but I'm thinking about March Madness and how NCAA basketball in the US, you have these divisions, right? And you're mostly tied to your division. How well you do or don't do might be somewhat tied to how much money you're getting from broadcasting rights in your division and the strength of schedule. I don't know.

these different things, but March Madness comes around and it's sort of a wide open field assuming you can get your team into the tournament. That's kind what the promotion relegation feels like a little bit to me. It is possible for an underdog to be able to kind of work their way up. I love that aspect of English Premier League, but can you think of any really awesome underdog stories that are on top of your head that were sort of neat things that happened in the English Premier League?

Speaker 2 (35:02.158)
Yes. I mean, I think you're exactly right. I think that's why people like March Madness so much is because anything goes, anything can happen, right? And while it's very rare, just like in March Madness, it's very rare in the Premier League too that you'll get a team that's a huge underdog that'll go on and win it. But it does happen. And in 2015, I believe it was, Leicester City, who was a team that had the year before gotten promoted to the Premier League. So they were in that championship. They made it up to...

the Premier League, they survived a season and then that following season, they went on to win the Premier League. Wow. I think they said the odds going to that season were like 3000 to one or something like that. It was insane. so cool. Yeah, usually you get the same several teams that are battling it out, but to get a team that was just promoted recently, and I remember watching it happen, was like they just kept winning and winning and winning. You're like, surely this isn't going to last forever. Surely they're going to start losing. They can't keep.

staying up in first place. And they somehow just kept doing it. It was a perfect storm and they ended up winning the whole league that year.

That's really cool. That just, that story just reminded me of personal side note when Ambre, when we were trying to figure out how to say that city name and we asked 100 people, remember, do you remember that? It's spelled really weird. It's spelled like, yeah, it's spelled like Lychester. And we were asking all these people and nobody knew, if we were just premier league fans, we would have known. We would have had our answer. Or if we just called your cousin.

Yeah. How do you say this city in England? have no clue. Okay. So on the topic of specific people or teams, who are some of the players past or present who have really embodied the spirit or personality of the premier league that people might know about, or maybe should look out for?

Speaker 2 (36:54.764)
So obviously as a Tottenham fan, got to bring them in some Tottenham players. I think what really embodies the Premier League is when you get a player that a lot of these teams will basically have homegrown talent. So they'll have youth teams and some of these players, it's very few because you have to be really good to stand out, but we'll be lucky enough to come up through the ranks and eventually play on that first team. And so when you see that happen, especially as a fan, it's amazing because you see a player that was a

16 year old, 17 year old, 18 year old kid that eventually gets his opportunity and takes advantage of it and becomes, you know, it can become a club legend essentially. And so I think who embodies that really nicely, especially as a Tottenham fan was Harry Kane. Unfortunately, he's no longer on Tottenham. He got traded over to Bayern Munich playing in Germany now. But he was just a story of, he was a boyhood Tottenham fan, played through the club on the youth levels, got his opportunity, started scoring goals and then just didn't stop scoring. And I remember.

the first few seasons, everyone called him a one season wonder because he scored over 20 goals his first season. And it was like, who's this kid? Like, there's no way he's going to do this again. And he just kept doing it and doing it until he became not only one of the best strikers in the premier league, but in the entire world. And so that I think is what embodies a true premier league player is just one of these players that are loyal to their club.

It sort of reminds me of, I'm not to bring in American football to this, but it kind of reminds me of like Aiden Hutchinson. Do you know that name? He like, I think grew up in Michigan, right? Went to Michigan and then now plays for the Lions and he's one of their best players. Like that is what it makes me think of is like someone who's like, I'm true to Michigan. I love Michigan. I want to stay here even though the Lions weren't great when he came, you know, whatever. So I think that's a cool story. I love that, you know, for those people too, especially who get to stay at home.

Yeah, as a fan even of a team when you can see a player stay loyal to your team too. It's just, there's something special about that.

Speaker 1 (38:54.04)
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Okay. So English Premier League, holy cow. mean, everybody knows the names of, you know, especially some of those top six teams that you rattled off. How has English Premier League managed to remain such a huge juggernaut in the world of sports? People are tuning in from all over the world. How and why have they remained such a global brand? What's the, like, what's their secrets?

Yeah. I mean, I think it's just the history behind the league, right? It's been around forever. It's been rebranded a few times, but you over a hundred years this league's been around and these teams have been a part of it. And I think the Premier League has done a really good job marketing it as well, especially over the last several years. Like it's blown up into the U S other parts of the world where now you're able to see and watch the games and you can get behind these teams. And so they've just done a really fantastic job getting behind the marketing of it all.

The other reason I think that it's just, it's taken such a big audience and then taking the attention of the world is if you think about like American football, for example, like the NFL or the NHL or the MLB, it's like people from around the world want to watch the best of the best, right? And that's in America, it's we have the best football league. have the best baseball league. have the best hockey league, right? We have the best basketball league, but I think the best arguably

soccer league in the world is the premier league. so people want to view in to see the best of the best and that's the best. it's just naturally blown up.

Speaker 1 (40:59.534)
I've literally never thought about it like that. Thank you for saying it that way, right? Because I think people get mad when you say like, I even too get a little bit annoyed when people say, we're the world champions after the Super Bowl. But then people have that argument, right? It's like, well, this is the best football league in the world. But I never thought about it like that. Like English Premier League is the best soccer league in the world, NHL, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, thanks for sharing it that way. That's pretty cool.

Okay, our last question for you. What's on your Premier League bucket list? Because I don't think you have you ever been to a game?

So unfortunately I've never been to a Premier League game over in England. They'll have like summer tours and stuff. they did actually, it was Tottenham against Manchester City in Nashville that I went to, and this was maybe like seven or eight years ago. So that was really cool to go and see, but yes, obviously I'd love to go over there. I did get to go to, we went to Italy several years ago and I went to a Roma Lazio game, which is the Italian league, which is another really high quality league. And those are actually two.

rivalries as well that share the same stadium. And that was insane. I was, I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit fearful for my life. You have these teams like shooting flares across the stadium at each other, the fans. People are getting into brawls like outside the stadium. It was crazy. was like, I'm not, I'm just not even going to like pretend I'm cheering for a team. I'm just a neutral here. Like I'm staying out of trouble. But it was awesome. Like the chanting and the noise just echoing through the stadium is unlike anything I've ever.

What?

Speaker 2 (42:33.39)
witness before. And so I'd love to obviously go to a Tottenham game over in London. I mean, a Tottenham against Arsenal game would be a dream. So as long as Tottenham wins.

Naturally. Did you get a scarf while you were there? He couldn't identify himself. He didn't want to identify himself either way.

Yeah, I think that was actually part of it. did not, because I think I was like, I'm not wearing a jersey. I think I just wore like a plain shirt.

Denim. Just denim.

I'm not trying to get in a fight with some random Italian.

Speaker 1 (43:05.73)
Thanks. That's amazing. It's awesome. Well, thank you, Vita. This has been so much fun. I feel like you enlightened me a little bit. I will give you some credit on that. I think as I have grown in my age and my wisdom, I do appreciate the English Premier League more. I appreciate soccer more as an adult than I did, you know, as a high school athlete probably. But we're so grateful that you could be here today. So thank you so, so very much.

Thank you for having me. It was a blast and I really appreciate you guys hearing me out and hearing why soccer is such a great sport. So thank you.

Thanks, Vida.

Speaker 1 (43:41.966)
And it's about that time for She's Got Game. Our last segment today where we take a moment to spotlight a woman doing something awesome in sports. Clearly there was a plethora of female soccer players or just females connected to soccer that I could have chosen from. And I went with Trinity Rodman. Do you know this player? Yes.

Of course I do. I'm not living under a rock. Do you know who her dad is? Dennis Rodman. Okay. What do you remember about Mr. Dennis Rodman? he was saucy. Like he always had the bleached out hair, tattoos everywhere. the cheetah Yeah, the cheetah hair for a while. He was like one of those players that was just annoying on the court. I don't know that you would, he would almost be kind of like, what do you call it in hockey? The,

What do we call that person who like goes out? Is it the enforcer? Enforcer. He's kind of like the enforcer of the basketball team because he wasn't like high level skills. I mean, obviously he was, he was in the NBA, but that wasn't what he was known for. He was known for going out there playing awesome defense and being just like an annoyance to other teams in every way, probably mentally, physically, emotionally, in every single way. I remember him chirping a lot, just trash talking and

I mean, because I watched him probably like you when we were really, really young, but like the flamboyant, you know, the piercings and the tattoos and the hair, but also just the trash talking to the referees too. For people who are like maybe of a younger generation, he would be kind of like a Dremont Green, but more flamboyant, like a little bit more extra. that's such a good word to describe him. Yeah. Yeah. So I say all that to kind of give some background here. So Dennis Rodman is Trinity Rodman's

dad. And I don't want to spend forever talking about him because the true star here is Trinity, but I think it's really important to kind of understand where she comes from. So I want to tell you about Trinity in a couple of chapters of her life. And the first chapter is named the not so OC life, Orange County, the OC really wealthy area. That is where Trinity grew up. Like Teslas are basically starter cars, you know?

Speaker 1 (46:05.454)
But Trinity's family, I know, right? Can't even. But Trinity's family was actually not rich, not even close. So she went to these really rich, ritzy schools, but couldn't really afford to even go out to eat fast food. Basically, dad was not paying a whole lot of bills, contributing financially. Dad was basically not even in the picture. Okay, that takes me to chapter two. I'm going to name this Family Ties. So yes, her dad is Dennis Rodman.

Her mom's name is Michelle. Dennis famously is quoted saying that he always kept his children at a quote unquote financial and emotional distance. He really didn't pay much to support Trinity or her brother. Trinity's mom was Dennis's third wife, so Dennis had a few other kids as well. Trinity's mom, Michelle, was truly the MVP of Trinity's childhood. Basically, she was raised by her mom.

But Dennis, let's just say he's not showing up for parent teacher night or really anything else. Trinity is quoted saying he's not a dad, maybe by blood, but not by anything else. There were actually times where Trinity and her mom and brother were homeless living in their Ford Expedition or living in a hotel for a number of months. Wait, so I'm confused. So she lived in Orange County because Dennis was there or because that's just where she grew up? Just because that's where she grew up.

That's just where he probably met her. And I'm so interested in this story because I didn't ever know. I never really knew what her ties to him were, if they were close or not. So I'm very interested in this story, but that's just where she was born. Therefore she lived there, even though she was poor. Yep, exactly. I'm guessing also where her mom was from. So just sort of where they stayed, but they were in this very ritzy area, but they themselves did not have a lot of money. How Dennis Rodman skirted around

You know, like child support payments. I'm not totally sure. He and Trinity's mom split in, I think, 2003, but didn't make the divorce final until 2012. So I imagine in those years, there's no legal recourse to require him to pay anything. yeah, sounds like just a really challenging childhood, but she had soccer throughout it. So she started playing soccer when she was actually four years old, super young.

Speaker 1 (48:30.776)
Chapter three, I'm gonna name The Rise. She talks about how she got her athleticism and her sort of scrappiness from her dad, but she talks about how it's not like she got that from him because he was teaching her or because she was really seeing him do it. By the time she was playing soccer and whatnot, he had already retired. So it was more like a genetic thing.

You know, like he's a scrappy dude. You talked about sacrificing body. He would sacrifice body. Trinity sacrifices body, but just because genetically that's how they're wired as an athlete. But Trinity is very clear that she got her speed from her mom who was a actually sprinter, a track athlete. So when she was 10 years old, she joined a pretty prestigious local soccer club called the SoCal Blues.

actually went undefeated for five straight years. It sounds kind of boring, but also awesome at the same time. She's super intense. And she said that she knew soccer was for her when she, here's a quote. She said, I realized that soccer was going to be my thing when I couldn't accept that people could play a sport just for fun. said, she said, I think at a young age, I was like, can we score? What are we doing?

I knew that my heart was in the game and I wanted to push myself as far as I could go. Okay. She would cry when she was on teams with kids who were there to like have fun, not kids who were there to crush it and score goals and win, win, win. She'd get so frustrated when the level of commitment and desire to win was not the same as what she had cutthroat even from a really early age. I loved hearing that. I mean, also like you should want to have fun in the sport you're playing, but I love that like intensity a hundred percent.

It's just two different types of kid athletes right there. know, right? You know, like the fun kids and then the Trinity's. Yeah. And probably the further up the chain you get, like the more of Trinity's you get, but you know, 10 years old, yeah, you probably got some kids there who just like, like soccer and being outside and playing hard. Yeah, exactly. So when she was graduating from high school, she committed to go play at Washington state. However, her first year would have been 2020 and

Speaker 1 (50:46.456)
her season got canceled because of COVID. So basically she thought to herself, you know what? Let's just skip this. Let's just go straight pro. So I was just going to say that shocks me that she's that young. Yeah. So she just went straight pro drafted by the Washington spirit. That was 2021 NWSL team and she's still there and still crushing it. That's crazy. I've got two more short chapters. want to tell you chapter four is called the glow up rookie of the year.

U.S. soccer young female player of the year. Check. Olympic gold medalist in Paris 2024. We are like we French. Got it. She said we we. She didn't take off her gold medal for days. She said something like three days. Amazing.

Sleeping, showering, yeah, like you do you. Do whatever you want with your gold medal. She's also one of the NWSL's highest paid athletes. Her contract is 1.1 mil over the course of four years. I've got one more chapter for you. I really wanna tell you about Trinity's vibe. So what is she like in the locker room, pregame rituals, et cetera? Here are her rituals. First off, she cannot play soccer without chewing gum.

She goes through at least three or four pieces per game and it must be peppermint. Spearmint is not welcome in this locker room. peppermint only. She's got to sit in the same spot on the bus. She's got to stand in the same spot for warmup. If it's a home game, she's got to make a PB and J in the locker room before the game. And speaking of the locker room, her vibe in the locker room, this goes along with her intensity. She's one of those hype up players. So,

You know, those people who are quietly got their headphones on, they're focused, they're maybe meditating, they're going through some of the plays. That is not Trinity. She's the one running around, chest bumping, screaming, trying to hype everyone up. She says she's the one who irritates the I was just gonna say everyone's like, shut up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think her vibe is like, we did the work.

Speaker 1 (53:05.678)
We put in the time or we're ready for this. Like, let's just get excited. You know, this is going to be amazing. In 2024, Trinity in the Washington spirit lost the NWSL championship one to nothing. It was so close. Orlando Pride won. They're off to a really strong start so far in 2025. It's a really long season NWSL. They start in March and they go all the way through November. So we're pretty early, but they're doing well so far. It's going to be really awesome watching her.

perhaps attempt to take some revenge and get to the championship and win it this year. But her story is really amazing, really inspiring, starting from very little, from homelessness and poverty, and then coming up to be such an amazingly successful soccer player, being paid a bunch of well-deserved money, and just overall crushing it in the NWSL. It's only a matter time before they have a full...

docu-series special on her and her relationship with her dad. I wonder why there isn't one already, if there is not. You know, I listened and watched a podcast on Call Her Daddy where Alex Cooper interviewed Trinity and basically the whole podcast was centered around her relationship with her dad. And I think the interview was relatively recent and they were framing it as really the first time that Trinity has sat down and spoken in

depth about her relationship with her dad. It's tough. He's just not in the picture. She says that he comes in the picture and she's like, no, it's going to be different. He came to my game. Now he's going to be around more. And then she doesn't talk to him. He doesn't reach out. She doesn't answer texts for months. So, um, so intrigued in what is Dennis doing with his life these days? I don't have the answer to that, but it is not spending time at Washington spirit soccer games. We're to Paris. mean,

Come on, dude. Yeah, right? Come on, dude. I'm sure he's probably, like, I'm not trying to put anything on anybody, but, like, he wasn't there to begin with, so I bet he feels guilt and shame probably about being there now. Which is like, come on, like, she's her kid, she just wants you to be in her life, probably. Yeah. And he said publicly that he, you know, wants to be a better dad, but then he, you know, comes to a game and then he disappears for months and,

Speaker 1 (55:28.918)
Yeah, feels to try to his own demons. I'm sure his own demons. But you know, I think it feels a Trinity to that he's showing up for the media opportunity, you know, and sort of using it as a daddy daughter moment. And she tries to be really PC and social media, not call it out. But it sounds like a really, really challenging relationship, which just makes it even more impressive that she's been able to stay above the noise and the mess and

Stay focused on soccer and find the thing that she really, really loves and excel, really excel. Talk about her mom. It's probably a testament of her mom being just an awesome human being and probably filling roles of both parents, which is so, so hard and I cannot imagine having to do that. Yeah. Inspiring lady for sure. And also great genetics because she was a track athlete. Thanks, mom. Thank you. Thanks.

But yeah, so a really fascinating female athlete, also an inspiring person to be able to talk about today. So for all those reasons and more are why we have chosen to spotlight Ms. Rodman today.

Speaker 1 (56:43.406)
And that's a wrap for today's episode. Huge thanks to cousin Vito for sharing all things Premier League with us. We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into what makes this league so unique. If something from today's episode hit home or made you laugh, we'd love to see it. Share it to your story with the episode link or a fun photo, get creative and make sure to tag Almost Fans podcast so we can reshare it into our stories too. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week.