The Premier League
is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of
the English football league system, it is the country's primary football
competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and
relegation with the Football League. The Premier League is a corporation in
which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May,
with teams playing 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches in the season. Most
games are played in the afternoons of Saturdays and Sundays, the other games
during weekday evenings. It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and thus
officially known as the Barclays Premier League. Outside England Chelsea
The competition formed as
the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of
clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from The Football
League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative
television rights deal. This deal will be worth £3 billion as of 2013–14,
with BSkyB and BT Group securing the rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games
respectively. The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the
world, broadcast in 212 territories to an audience of 643 million viewers.
In the 2010–11 season the average Premier League match attendance was 35,363,
the second highest of any professional football league other than the German
Bundesliga, and stadium occupancy was 92.2% capacity. The Premier League ranked
first in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficients of
leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five
years.
Since 1888, a total of 23
clubs have been crowned champions of the English football system. Of the 45
clubs to have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, five
have won the title: Manchester United (12
titles), Arsenal (3), Chelsea (3), Blackburn
Rovers (1) and Manchester
City Manchester
City
Season
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Champions
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1992–93
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1993–94
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1994–95
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1995–96
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1996–97
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1997–98
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Arsenal
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1998–99
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1999–2000
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2000–01
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2001–02
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Arsenal
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2002–03
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2003–04
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Arsenal
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2004–05
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2005–06
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2006–07
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2007–08
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2008–09
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2009–10
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2010–11
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2011–12
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Origins
Despite significant
European success during the 1970s and early 1980s, the late '80s had marked a
low point for English football. Stadia were crumbling, supporters endured poor
facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European
competition for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985. The
Football League First Division, which had been the top level of English
football since 1888, was well behind leagues such as Italy 's
Serie A and Spain England
Television money had also
become much more important; the Football League received £6.3 million for
a two-year agreement in 1986, but when that deal was renewed in 1988, the price
rose to £44 million over four years. The 1988 negotiations were the first
signs of a breakaway league; ten clubs threatened to leave and form a
"super league", but were eventually persuaded to stay. As stadia
improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the country's top teams again
considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the growing
influx of money being pumped into the sport.
Foundation
At the
close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was
tabled that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members
Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established
the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League. The newly formed top
division would have commercial independence from The Football Association and
the Football League, giving the FA Premier League licence to negotiate its own
broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that
the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe .
In 1992 the First Division
clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the
FA Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at
the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate. This meant a
break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with
four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the
Football League with three. There was no change in competition format; the same
number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation
between the Premier League and the new First Division remained the same as the
old First and Second Divisions with three teams relegated from the league and
three promoted.[11]
The league held its first
season in 1992–93 and was originally composed of 22 clubs. The first ever
Premier League goal was scored by Brian Deane of Sheffield United in a 2–1 win
against Manchester United. The 22 inaugural members of the new Premier League
were Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal
Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City,
Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham
Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton,
Tottenham Hotspur, and Wimbledon. Luton
Town , Notts County
Development
Due to insistence by the
International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the international
governing body of football, that domestic leagues reduce the number of games
clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams
were relegated from the league and only two teams promoted. On 8 June 2006,
FIFA requested that all major European leagues, including Italy 's Serie A and Spain Swansea City England was between Swansea City
and Wigan Athletic at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea ,
Wales
Corporate structure
The Premier League is
operated as a corporation and is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is a
shareholder, with one vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts.
The clubs elect a chairman, chief executive, and board of directors to oversee
the daily operations of the league. The current chairman is Sir Dave Richards,
who was appointed in April 1999, and the chief executive is Richard Scudamore,
appointed in November 1999. The former chairman and chief executive, John
Quinton and Peter Leaver, were forced to resign in March 1999 after awarding
consultancy contracts to former Sky executives Sam Chisholm and David Chance.
The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations
of the Premier League, but has veto power as a special shareholder during the
election of the chairman and chief executive and when new rules are adopted by
the league.
The Premier League sends
representatives to UEFA's European Club Association, the number of clubs and
the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. For the 2010–11
season the Premier League had 10 representatives in the Association: Arsenal,
Aston Villa, Chelsea , Everton, Fulham,
Liverpool, Manchester
City
Competition format
Competition
There are 20 clubs in the
Premier League. During the course of a season (from August to May) each club
plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home
stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 38 games. Teams
receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded
for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then
goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned
champion. If points are equal, the goal difference and then goals scored
determine the winner. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same
position. If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for
qualification to other competitions, a play-off match at a neutral venue
decides rank. The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Football
League Championship, and the top two teams from the Championship, together with
the winner of play-offs involving the third to sixth placed Championship clubs,
are promoted in their place.
Qualification for European competitions
Arsenal
against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League in 2011
As of the 2009–10 season
qualification for the UEFA Champions League changed, the top four teams in the
Premier League qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top three teams
directly entering the group stage. Previously only the top two teams qualified
automatically. The fourth-placed team enters the Champions League at the
play-off round for non-champions and must win a two-legged knockout tie in
order to enter the group stage. The team placed fifth in the Premier League
automatically qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, and the sixth and
seventh-placed teams can also qualify, depending on the winners and runners-up
of the two domestic cup competitions. Two Europa League places are reserved for
the winner of each of the domestic cup competitions; if the winner of the FA
Cup qualifies for the Champions League, then that place will go to the runner-up,
and if the runner-up is also already qualified, then that place will go to the
next-best placed finisher in the Premier League. If the winner of the League
Cup has already qualified, that place goes to the next-best placed team in the
league. A further place in the UEFA Europa League is also available via the
Fair Play initiative. If the Premier League has one of the three highest Fair
Play rankings in Europe, the highest ranked team in the Premier League Fair
Play standings which has not already qualified for Europe
will automatically qualify for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.
An exception to the usual
European qualification system happened in 2005, after Liverpool
won the Champions League the year before, but did not finish in a Champions
League qualification place in the Premier League that season. UEFA gave special
dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England
In 2007, the Premier League
became the highest ranking European League based on the performances of English
teams in European competitions over a five-year period. This broke the
eight-year dominance of the Spanish league, La Liga. The top three leagues in Europe are currently allowed to enter four teams into the
Champions League. Michel Platini, the UEFA president, had proposed taking one
place from the top three leagues and allocating it to that nation's cup
winners. This proposal was rejected in a vote at a UEFA Strategy Council
meeting. In the same meeting, however, it was agreed that the third-placed team
in the top four leagues would receive automatic qualification for the group
stage, rather than entry into the third qualifying round, while the
fourth-placed team would enter the play-off round for non-champions,
guaranteeing an opponent from one of the top 15 leagues in Europe .
This was part of Platini's plan to increase the number of teams qualifying
directly into the group stage, while simultaneously increasing the number of
teams from lower-ranked nations in the group stage.
Trophy
The current Premier League
trophy was created by Royal Jewellers Asprey of London. It consists of a trophy
with a golden crown and a malachite plinth base. The plinth weighs 33 lbs
(15 kg) and the trophy weighs 22 lbs (10 kg). The trophy and
plinth are 76 cm (30 in) tall, 43 cm (17 in) wide and
25 cm (9.8 in) deep.
Its main body is solid
sterling silver and silver gilt, while its plinth is made of malachite, a
semi-precious stone. The plinth has a silver band around its circumference,
upon which the names of the title-winning clubs are listed. Malachite's green
colour is also representative of the green field of play. The design of the
trophy is based on the heraldry of Three Lions that is associated with English
football. Two of the lions are found above the handles on either side of the
trophy – the third is symbolised by the captain of the title winning team as he
raises the trophy, and its gold crown, above his head at the end of the season.
In 2004, a special gold version of the trophy was commissioned to commemorate
Arsenal winning the title without a single defeat.
Sponsorship
The Premier League has been
sponsored since 1993. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's
sponsorship name. There have been three sponsors since the league's formation.
- 1993–2001: Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
- 2001–2004: Barclaycard (Barclaycard Premiership)
- 2004–present: Barclays (Barclays Premiership (until
2007) then Barclays Premier League)
As well as sponsorship for
the league itself, the Premier League has a number of official partners and
suppliers. The official ball supplier for the league is Nike who have had the
contract since the 2000–01 season when they took over from Mitre.
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