Why It’s OK to Say “EPL”

By: Daryl | August 25th, 2009

The phrase “EPL” (short for English Premier League) was very nearly included in this post earlier today, because I know English fans often laugh at Americans (or other foreigners) who refer to the Premier League as such.

But after thinking it over, I changed my mind. And I want to explain why. So if you’re one of those English fans who snickers when they hear those three letters, then please keep reading.

It’s worth remembering that there’s more than one Premier League in the world. There’s the Russian Premier League, the Ukrainian Premier League, the Scottish Premier League, and so on.

Obviously English fans don’t call it “the English Premier League”. Because they’re already in England. That would be like Chinese people referring to their dinner as “Chinese food”. But if you live outside of England then it’s only natural to make it clear exactly which Premier League you’re talking about.

Maybe some English fans think the whole “EPL” thing is a reflection of America’s Alphabetti Spaghetti obsession with sports acronyms (NBA, NFL, NASCAR etc). And maybe it is. But “English Premier League” is a mouthful, while EPL is not. And if English fans still aren’t convinced… Do you give the Scottish Premier League it’s full title, or do you call it the SPL? Exactly.

There is an argument that the English Premier League is technically titled just the “Premier League”, with no prefix. It gets to do that because it was the first league to use that title. Just as the UK based newspaper is titled simply “The Times” and the English Football Association is actually just The Football Association.

But if you live in the US then “The Times” is the New York Times and if you live in Ireland then “The Football Association” is probably the Football Association of Ireland. So if you’re outside of England and want to refer to either of the entities in the above paragraph, no one can blame you for attaching the “English” (or in the newspaper’s case “London”) prefix.

More importantly, the Premier League forfeited the right to be known as that and nothing more when it tried to integrate the sponsor name into the actual league name. I’d much rather hear it called the EPL than the BPL. As the fine folks at Unprofessional Foul say: “Suck it Barclays!”

The Premier League has aggressively and successfully pursued a global audience, and now has to live with the results. Because you can’t have a global audience on one hand, but then on the other hand expect that audience to act like yours is the only league in the world.

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Category: English Premier League

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Guest

For me it all depends on who I'm talking to or where I may be posting a comment.

If I am disusing English football with someone, then I will only say Premier League. If somewhere in the conversation the Scottish, Russian or Ukrainian Prem Leagues come up, I'll say Scottish and so on.

It does get pretty confusing as I follow mostly the English Premier League, although I live close to many Scottish people as well as a Celtic FC supporters bar.
James

I'm English, I don't really see the EPL thing as a problem whatsoever, I just call it "The Prem" usually. Don't feel as though you have to apologise for using shorter or different terminology to appease pedants. You see... I used an "s" in apologise there, to me, that's fine. To you, a little different ;)

But yeah, on the subject of "The Championship", it was a joke name in England to start with and is still a joke now. It came along with the Coca-Cola re-branding debacle. Mind you, like a smoking ban, it's strange how quickly I got used to.
Shazback

Between brackets in the third paragraph was "[Country] [League Name]", however, it seems that the HTML filter chopped it out.
Shazback

Daryl: And I'm arguing that it's used, but not valid. Just like starting a sentence with "and".

The argument that "there are other Premier Leagues" makes little to no sense, since that distinction isn't made when talking about the various Ligas (even though the Portuguese Liga and Spanish Liga are more important than any pairing of "Premier Leagues"), nor Series A (Again, Italy-Brazil can take England and Scotland for a run every day of the week). If people call the Premier League the "EPL" because of possible confusion regarding "which" Premier League, the how come they don't do the same thing when talking about La Liga or Serie A?

Nobody in Australia got confused when the Sydney Morning Herald released an article titled "Mixed fortunes for Premier League's big guns" (http://news.smh.com.au/breakin..., and even the usually-retarded Yahoo! Answers crowd weren't confused when someone asked "Who will win the Premier League Title 09/10" (http://answers.yahoo.com/quest..., despite it being in the "UK" football section, not "England".

If people are consistent and apply the label on the basis " ", then yes, the English Premier League (or England Premier League) makes sense. But that means they've got to say that Real Madrid play in the Spanish (or Spain) Liga, and that Juventus play in the Italian (or Italy) Serie A. But if people are going to say "EPL" and the "La Liga", I can only say that I fail to see any reason for adding the "E".

Inara: So if you read in L'Equipe that "Dindane veut jouer en Premier League" (as was in a recent copy I picked up) you'll be confused? What about "Tiago : Serie A ou rien" (that's a bit older) or "Benzema : L'appel de La Liga"? Do you also get confused when you read in Benzema's interviews that "Manchester" and "Milan" wanted him to join, or that Lyon fans should understand why he left, because you don't turn down an offer from "le Real"? In the lack of specifier, people understand that the most common is being talked about : "Real" for Real Madrid, "Manchester" for Manchester United, Serie A for the top Italian division and Premier League for the top English division. Or at least, readers of L'Equipe are expected to be able to understand that.
floormaster squeeze

Oh, to the person above who claimed that the English "second level" is the fourth best attended league; the facts say otherwise.

It is a very well attended league and beats out Germany for the best attended second level league. But it is not 4th. Premier League, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, France and Mexico all have higher average attendances at their games for sure (that would be 8th) and one source in 2002 had them the year in 14th (although they probably passed many of them by now).

I suppose Newcastle might move them up at the end of this year but still likely 6th or so.
floormaster squeeze

Well, I live in the US of A and I do not know any knowledgeable soccer fan that uses the term "EPL". You seemed to miss the whole point of communication (it's not that you need to find reasons why people could understand what you are talking about but that you should try to use expressions that cannot be misunderstood).
Thomas

Simon, did you read the article/comments at all? And are you really that ignorant of football that you don't know about the Russian and Ukranian premier leagues, among others? I mean the last two Uefa Cup champions came from them!
Nick

I think it's silly that they get offended when we call it "soccer." I mean, it's the same sport...who cares? What SHOULD matter is whether or not you love, understand, and respect the game. I'll call the Premier League whatever they want me to call it; I just want to enjoy it. By the way, does anyone know how an American, such as myself, can get tickets to a Premier League game? The team sites seem to prohibit Americans from registering. I'm specifically referring to Fulham, since that's the site I've tried.
simon

A ridiculous article. Like any confusion could possibly amount from the use of "Premier League" - if you said that to someone else in America are they really going to say "English or Scottish?" - because that's really the only distinction to be made isn't it? Can't think of any other premier leagues.
Shane

In reference to Drabik about various "New" names, while there is a little humor in what what you said, I hope you realize that Americans didn't name any of those places. There was no USA at the time they were named. They were name by explorers usually in honor of their own nations. Well, I guess in fact it was the British that named most of those you mentioned....
Drabik

I agree the Championship is a great league. And I am well aware of the viewing figures they receive. I just don't think that the 'Championship' is a good name for a league that is not top tier.
holycalamity

And despite my previous comment, I don't think it's *wrong* to write "EPL". I mean, it gets the point across, so I guess it's a perfectly good acronym. It just seems incredibly odd to me to add an initial for a descriptor that doesn't appear in the name.

What bugs me more though, is when TV announcers say "EPL". "Ee Pee El" isn't shorter than "Premier League" or "the league", both of which are more descriptive shorthands on second mentions.

As a point of comparison, even though there are multiple Champions Leagues out there, I always see it as "CL" or "the CL", never "ECL" (I believe the shortform accepted in media style guides is "UCL" for "UEFA Champions League").
G

I really don't mind EPL or the prefix 'English' in front of Premier league. To be honest, the people above do make a good point about the lack of a prefix for Serie A, La Liga, and the Bundesliga. They are the biggest leagues in the world and people who know about football know what you are talking about most of the time.

It really is a pointless argument to be honest. Just like when people moan at the use of 'soccer'. Get over it.

On the subject of the Championship, as its the forth best attended league in the world and being home to the mighty posh, we can call it what the fuck we want
Drabik

Who cares....

Surely a better article would be why England's second tier is called the Championship... and why Englands third tier is called league one...

I understand that the Premier League is separate from the Football League, but who are the Football League kidding to think that they can name their leagues in such ways that if you were completely new to the game, you might be confused as to which league was the top league.

As for the original article, it doesnt matter what you write really, as long as someone understands. But what about America, which is a word used to represent USA, despite the many other countries in North, South and Central America. Everyone understands you mean USA, so its okay.

The words 'Premier League' are used in sooo many countries, and undoubtably the English Premier League is the most famous, so if an article is titled 'Unexpected results in the Premier League', who going to expect to read about the Afghanistans Premier League, the scottish premier league or otherwise...

And on a similar subject, American Football... People in America (or the USA) just call it Football (most people, anyway). They should have named it 'New Football', because historically they are that good at making up names. Lets name this place New York, this one New Hampshire, this one New Mexico, this one New England and this one New Jersey.

This isn't having a go at Americans (people of USA) by the way, but just pointing out that such assumptions occur all over the world with pretty much everything, and it only matters if there is a misunderstanding.
George

People who make up trite and ironic acronyms to try to prove a point, along with those who say "fail" in caps, make me lose faith in humanity.
Daryl

Shazback and holycalamity,

I'm not arguing that the Prem should be called the EPL. Only that people do call it the EPL, and that there are valid reasons why they do that. Valid enough that it's OK to do so.
holycalamity

Uh, the explanation doesn't make any sense. Shortening "Scottish Premier League" to "SPL" is fine because, this might shock you, the "S" is actually part of the name. I know, blows your mind, doesn't it?

The comparison fails because the FA Premiership isn't the English Premier League, but *the* Premier League, which happens to be in England. The problem with the "E" in EPL is that you're adding something that isn't there. You don't refer to the Automobile Association in the UK as the "BAA", do you? No, it's simply "AA".

And I'm sure you realize that there are multiple Bundesligas out there. For the sake of consistency, I hope you refer to the German top flight as "the Gee Bee Ell".

But really, I'm in no position to tell people what they can and can't call things. All I can do is point out that it sounds silly and the explanation is a logic FAIL. And why not simply "Prem" if "the Premier League" and "Premiership" are too much stress on your vocal cords and typing fingers?
Shazback

Phew, now I'm awaiting hearing about the SLL (Spanish La Liga?), the ISA (Italian Serie A), and the GB1 (German Bundesliga).

Or perhaps we can just recognise that the name "Premier League" was first used in England and that it is the most important (or at least visible) of the current "Premier Leagues" in the world (except perhaps in countries with a "xxxx Premier League", where it would be second most important).

La Liga is actually the Liga BBVA (SLB?), Serie A is the Serie A TIM (IST??), and both of them share their name with other leagues (Portuguese Liga Sagres; Campeonato Brasiliero Serie A). Yet I doubt anybody feels the need to specify that when they're talking about La Liga they're talking about the Spanish Liga and not the Portuguese Liga, or are making a half-assed attempt to call Serie A by some acronym that includes "Italian".

If you're talking about "the Bundesliga", people understand you're talking about the most important/visible of the various "Bundesliga"s. I.e. the German Fussballbundesliga 1. A grand total of nobody (not even Austrians, unless you're speaking German) will think you're talking about the Austrian T-Mobile Bundesliga, the German Chess Bundesliga or the German Toyota Handball-Bundesliga. Why would it be any different for the Premier League? I've never met anybody who confused the "Premier League" with the Indian cricket Premier League or the Ukrainan Premier League, nor even with the Scottish League because the Scottish Premier League have branded themselves SPL right from the start (visit their official website to see that...).

Anyway, now I'm looking forwards to any further references to the Serie A (sorry, Italian Serie A) or the Spanish Liga in this blog with funny acronyms, as well as any other league that shares a name with another country and has had a sponsor. EPL, SPL, UPL, RPL, WPL, ISA, SLL, BSA, ESA, PLL, RL1, GFB, AFB... Woohoo!
Vinod

@Nolan: LOL! :D
Rob

Being English, I'd never heard it called the EPL before, the EPL Offside was created for me to live in - but now I do catch myself referring to it as such on occasion out of habit - but yeah the point remains that I call the SPL the SPL so if I was in Glasgow I would call the Prem the EPL, and thus it makes sense for a worldwide community like this inter-network to do the same.
Nolan

I just call it the Premiershit, which gets the point across, but I'm an unfair La Liga (that's Spanish Primera División, not to be confused with the Paraguayan or Chilean Primera División) and Serie A (Italian Serie A, not to be confused with Brazilian or Ecuadorian Serie A) fanboy.
Fwembt

The problem, B. Kelly, is that if I say "The Times" here in the states, everyone assumes I mean the New York Times which, nine times out of ten, I don't. If I say "The Premier League" hardly anyone knows what I mean. If I talk about "the Football Association" people think I have lost it and forgotten it's called the NFL.

Sometimes you have to add the modifier to even begin to have a conversation. I understand the desire to avoid it and I even understand the idea of having earned the right, but it simply doesn't matter.
maja

There are also two Bundesligas. The German and the Austrian one. In each country, people refer to their own ligue as Bundesliga and use the appropriate qualifier when they refer to their neighbours ligue.
B.Kelly

Mate-sorry but your wrong on this. 'The Times' earned its right the have this name, so did The Premier League and Football Association. It is the advantage of being the first mover in a market. It is also important as it is a brand as well as name and thus the exact nature of it is important.
skidoos

Right on Daryl, great article.