5/01/2012 08:58:00 AM
Zaenal Muttakin
(CNN) -- The world watched
Manchester, and Manchester watched the world turn red and blue.
According to some analysts more than
600 million people across the globe tuned into see the blue of Manchester City
beat the red of Manchester United 1-0, arguably the biggest audience for the
biggest match in English Premier League history.
Vincent Kompany's headed goal deep in
first half injury time was enough to take City top of the league from their
rivals on goal difference. Psychologically, with two games left, it could prove
decisive and hand City the advantage as they hunt their first ever Premier League
title.
The match itself was enthralling
without being exciting, tense without many chances on goal. But by the end, as
Manchester City fans sang their club's famous adopted song "Blue
Moon", there was a sense that history was being witnessed. United coach
Alex Ferguson lost his cool and remonstrated with his opposite number Roberto
Mancini. But the game was lost for United. Perhaps as one empire rises, another
falls.
TV networks from China to Qatar sent
their chief correspondents to relay something of the febrile atmosphere to
their expectant domestic audiences, audiences that have taken English football
as their own over the past two decades.
Even in America, traditionally one of
the few bastions of football refuseniks, TV chiefs decided to upgrade the match
to ESPN's main channel. This, CNN's Eliott C.
McLaughlin told us, was a very big deal indeed.
Yet it wasn't always like this.
Once, not so long ago, few outside of
those standing on the terraces attending this derby match in the north west of
England would have been able to watch the spectacle.
True the Manchester derby has always
been a passionate, sometimes brutal affair over the years. The fortunes of both
the red half of United and the blue of City have ebbed and flowed as the
decades pass. City haven't won the league for 44 years. Instead they watched United
become the greatest team of the Premier League era not to mention arguably the
most recognizable, and profitable, brands in the world.
But in 1974 the boot was on the other
foot when Dennis Law -- a United legend who had signed for City -- sheepishly
back heeled the goal that relegated United to the second division.
Such a scenario in 2012 would be
unthinkable. Today the Manchester derby has reached the kind of global
prominence that Barcelona versus Real Madrid -- even if Spain's biggest match
isn't a derby in the truest sense of the word -- would normally enjoy.
Its rise is much more than just the
story of two successful football teams. The rise of the Manchester derby is
also the story of the rise of globalization.
United and City are separated by just
five miles yet the local has become the global.
On the pitch ten different
nationalities featured. The stadium's naming rights have been sold to a Middle
Eastern airline. United is owned by the Glazer family, the American venture
capitalists who knew virtually nothing about football outside of their love of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who bought the club in an unpopular leveraged buy
out.
Manchester City has been transformed by
the mega money from the Arab world, owned as it is by Sheikh Mansour from the
ruling family of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It was Sheikh Mansour's
money that turned a sleepy, underperforming club into champion's elect.
As the movement of capital and talent
has been made easier, football -- and especially the Premier League -- has
reaped the financial benefits. But no two entities have benefited more than
Manchester's two football clubs.
"I think we deserved to win this
game," Mancini told British TV after the match.
"I think next Saturday we'll have
another difficult day."
And he's right, of course. Manchester
City easily fended off United's late charge. United didn't even manage a shot
on target during the entire 90 minutes. Now the two teams are equal on points
with just two matches left.
As Mancini said, next Saturday will be
the same as Monday; a difficult day, almost too close to call.
But there's one thing that you can
predict. On Saturday the world will be watching once again.
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