When the English top flight was rebranded as the Premier League in 1992, it came as a reaction to the “dark days” of soccer in the country.
In the 1980s, stadiums were unsafe and dilapidated, hooliganism was rife with issues and racism was par for the course. In 1982, Chelsea’s first black player Paul Canoville suffered racist abuse from his own team’s fans. In 1988, a famous image showed Liverpool forward John Barnes backheeling a banana from the field in a Merseyside derby. And West Brom’s Cyrille Regis also had bananas thrown at him — and was sent a bullet in the mail when he received his first England call-up.