Marketing The Imperial Premier League: English Football Jerseys and the Conquering of the Global Everday

Due to globalised media, international pre-season matches and other marketing initiatives, it is now possible to support the English Premier League (EPL) from anywhere in the world.

This thesis considers the EPL as a result of global cultural flows, but also as a by-product of British colonialism, reflecting an extensive imperial history. It does this by focusing on the visual representation of the jersey. While the football jersey in England is over a century old, today, it is a cheap, mass-produced product of globalisation. This research considers how English football jerseys reveal legacies of British empire through photographic representation of ‘the Everyday.’ Theorised by Lefebvre (1981) and de Certeau, (1980) the Everyday pertains to the habitual, supposedly mundane occurrences of daily life. Through the colours, material, crests and sponsors, the shirt visually pops in the photographs in Gold Dust (2016) by Chris Lee, My Last Day at Seventeen (2015) by Doug DuBois, and Premier Skills (2017) Charlie Clift.

The images are contrasted with advertisements from the British governments Empire Marketing Board, (1926-1933) offering an interesting perspective where the images examined are a modern adaptation of empire marketing. The photos taken in Ghana, Ireland and India portray the jersey in the 'the Everyday' revealing legacies of British empire and how widespread the English Premier League has become.