How English Is the EPL?

Well, it is the English Premier League. And all of the teams are in England.

At the same time, it’s also the most competitive league in the world. And I’m sure you can think of many players – and coaches – who are definitely not English.

So, let’s take a look see …

NOTE:  I do realize England does not include Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, or even the Isle of Man. Nevertheless, I will be including them here. It's just going to make it all so much simpler.

Ownership

This seems like the most obvious play to start. I mean, they’re all oil sheiks, aren’t they?

Surprisingly, it’s the US, with 40%. They also seem to have cornered most of the heavy hitters – MANU (the Glazer family), Liverpool (John Henry), Chelsea and Arsenal. There are, though, several smaller clubs – Fullham, Palace, Bournemouth …

The UK, though, does come in second behind them, with 25%. The biggest team here is undoubtedly Tottenham, with others including smaller clubs like West Ham, Brighton, and Brentford.

The only other country that isn’t a one-off is Saudi Arabia. They’ve been plowing their petro cash into Newcastle and Sheffield. The former is owned by SA’s sovereign fund, with the latter controlled by a member of the royal family.

One Prince Abdullah, to be exact

Oil money is, of course, also funding Man City, owned by a consortium from the UAE. Other one-offs include China (Wolves), Egypt (Villa), Monaco (Everton), and Greece (Forest).

Not too surprisingly, UK ownership gets larger for the lesser leagues:

• Championship – 33%
• League One – 85%
• League Two – 85%

Managers

Another obvious place to look is managers. They seem to be from all over Europe – Klopp, Ten Hag, Guardiola … And off the top of my head, the only English one I can think of is Roy Hodgson (though I forget which club he’s with this year). 

Well, at least the UK has a plurality here, at 35%. This does, indeed, include Hodgson, at Palace. The rest, though, are neither well-known nor at the top clubs. As for the former, David Moyes and Sean Dyche are the only ones I’m familiar with. As for the latter, we’ve got Everton, Newcastle, Wolves …

Roy Hodgson, CBE

The #2 position here is held by Spain, at 20%. And that includes Man City (Guardiola), Arsenal (Arteta), Villa, and Bournemouth. Spain shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, the only other country that has multiple managers in the EPL, with 2.

There are as many one-offs as there are English managers. These include some heavy hitters – Germany (Klopp), the Netherlands (Ten Hag), Argentina (Chelsea), as well as Belgium, Denmark, and even Australia. A little surprised Italy only had one.

Herr Doktor Klopp

As for the other leagues, the same rule holds as for ownership, but even more so:

• Championship – 54%
• League One – 92%
• League Two – 96%

Sponsorship

Sponsorships are funny. There are a number of them. The most obvious one, though, is what appears on the jersey. So, let's go with that.

This one comes closest to a majority, with UK companies representing 45% of the total. Interestingly, most of those are gambling operations, typically set up on the Isle of Man (and representing Chinese money, where gambling is illegal). I’d say the only really well-known British company here is Liverpool’s Standard & Chartered, an insurance company. They’ve actually sponsored the club since 2010.

The US and the UAE both have 2 sponsorships. For the US, this includes the well-known Amex (Brighton) and the rather obscure Infinite Athlete (Chelsea). For the UAE, we’ve got 2 airlines, Emirates (Arsenal) and Etihad (Man City).

One-offs represent 35% of the total, and are kind of all over the place. We’ve got Germany (TeamViewer, MANU) and the Phillipines (Dafabet, Bournemouth). There’s China (Tottenham, AIA) and South Africa (Hollywood Bets, Brentford).

As you can tell from some of those companies, betting is important here as well. Indeed, 40% of all sponsors make their money off of gambling. The 2026 season will change all that, though, when betting companies will not be allowed.

Sorry, no easy place to access the sponsorships for the other leagues.

Clubs

Well, I guess one final place to look is at the players themselves. Now, I’m not going to do this for all 20 teams. Even I have (something) of a life.

I thought what I might do, though, is look at the top and bottom clubs, and see what we get. For Liverpool, it looks like this.

For them, it looks like almost half (41%) are one-offs. These include some stars as well – namely, Salah (Egypt) and Darwin Nunez (Uruguay).

Nice hair, dude

The UK does come in 2^nd, though, at 30%. The only star here, however, is Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Spain and the Netherlands both have 3 players (11% each), with Virgil van Dijk being the only real name. Brazil has two, with Alisson being the much better known one.

On the other hand, of the clubs lowest 6 in minutes played, 5 are Brits. The top 6 in minutes played are all foreigners.

Now let’s take a look at the bottom of the table – namely, Sheffield.

As you can see, we do have a majority of Brits. Though I can’t say I know any Blades, I do see that their top 10 in minutes played include 6 Brits. Among the others are a Yank, Brazilian, Dutchman, and Bosnian. On the other hand, the bottom 12 also includes 10 Brits.

It’s true!