English Premier League
The FA Premier League (often referred to as the Barclays Premiership in the UK and the Barclays English Premier League or just simply The EPL internationally) is a league competition for football clubs located at the top of the English football league system (above The Football League), making it England's primary football competition.
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English Premier League - Info
The FA Premier League (often referred to as the Barclays Premiership in the UK and the Barclays English Premier League or just simply The EPL internationally) is a league competition for football clubs located at the top of the English football league system (above The Football League), making it England's primary football competition. It is the world's most watched sporting league and most lucrative football league, followed by over a billion people.
History
The FA Premier League was formed in 1992 (and branded as "The Premiership" in the United Kingdom from the 1993-94 season) from the top division of The Football League, and is currently contested by twenty clubs. In a total of fourteen seasons, the title has been won by only four teams: Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Manchester United. Of these, the most successful is Manchester United, who have won the title eight times and only team to have won the title three consecutive times. The current Premier League champions are Chelsea, who won their second consecutive title in the 2005-06 season.
The FA Women's Premier League, more specifically the National Division, is the Premiership's female counterpart, as most of its clubs are affiliated with Premiership and Football League sides; however, the league is semi-professional and has a much lower profile than the mens' game even within its national boundaries.
Establishment
The league held its first season in 1992–93 and was originally composed of twenty-two clubs. The first ever Premiership goal was scored by Brian Deane against Manchester United in a 2-1 win for Sheffield United. Due to insistence by FIFA, the international governing body of football, that domestic leagues reduce the number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to twenty in 1995 when four teams were relegated from the league and only two teams were promoted. On 8 June 2006, FIFA requested that all major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga be reduced to eighteen teams by the start of the 2007-08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.
The Structure
The Premier League is operated as a corporation that is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is considered a shareholder with one vote each on such issues 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 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 Forum, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. The European Club Forum is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Cup.
The Competition
There are twenty clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (which lasts from August to May) each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for a total of 38 games for each club, and a total of 380 games in a Premier League season. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw.
No points are awarded for a defeat. 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 as champion. 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.
Qualifying for Europe
The top four teams in the Premiership qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top two teams directly entering the group phase. The third and fourth placed teams enter the competition at the third qualifying round and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. The fifth placed team automatically qualifies for the UEFA Cup, and the sixth and seventh placed teams can also qualify, depending on what happens in the two domestic cup competitions.
If the FA Cup champions and runners-up both finish in the top five of the Premier League, the FA Cup's UEFA Cup spot goes to the sixth placed team in the League. If the League Cup is won by a team that has already qualified for Europe, the League Cup's UEFA Cup spot also goes to the next highest placed team in the League (unlike the FA Cup spot, it is never transferred to the losing finalist).
The highest placed team that has not qualified for the UEFA Cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, the winner of which is automatically entered into the UEFA Cup. The Premiership is third in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five year period, behind Spain's La Liga and Serie A.
Sponsorships of the Premier League
Since 1993, the FA Premier League has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. So far, all sponsors have referred to the competition as the 'Premiership'. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:
1993–2001: Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
2001–2004: Barclaycard (Barclaycard Premiership)
2004–2010: Barclays (Barclays Premiership)
Finances
The Premiership boasts some of the best players in the world, including many from outside England. The Premier League is the most lucrative football league in the world, with total club revenues of over £1.3 billion in 2004–05 according to Deloitte, more than 40% above its nearest competitor, Italy's Serie A. Revenues will increase substantially by the 2007–08 season, when new media rights deals start (see below). Based on May 2006 exchange rates, £1.3 billion converts to annual league revenue of about US$2.44 billion. This figure is the fourth highest for any sports league worldwide, behind the annual revenues of the three most popular North American major sports leagues (the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association), but slightly ahead of the National Hockey League. Considering that the Premier League has only 20 clubs, and depending on exchange rates and what is defined as revenue, the Premier League's average per-team revenues are very close to, and could be ranked ahead of, the NBA's.
The 2005–06 average attendance of 33,875 for league matches is the fourth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world. This represents an increase of over 60% from the average attendance of 21,126 recorded in the league's first season (1992-93). However, during the 1992-93 season the capacities of most stadiums were reduced as clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the Taylor Report's 1994-95 deadline for all-seater stadiums.[14][15] The 2005-06 figure is lower than the Premier League's record average attendance of 35,464, set during the 2002-03 season.
Leagues Top Scorers
Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premiership goals with 260. Shearer finished among the top ten goal scorers in 10 out of his 14 seasons in the Premier League and won the top scorer title three times.
Since the first Premier League season in 1992-93, eleven different players have won or shared the top scorers title. Thierry Henry won his third consecutive and fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005-06 season. This surpassed Shearer's mark of three titles which he won consecutively from 1994-95 through 1996-97. Other multiple winners include Michael Owen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who have won two titles each. Shearer and Andrew Cole hold the record for most goals in a season (34) which they scored in seasons that lasted 42 rather than 38 games. Shearer's mark of 31 goals in 1995-96 is the highest total in a 38 game season.
Manchester United became the first team to have scored 1000 goals in this league after Cristiano Ronaldo scored, in a 4-1 defeat by Middlesbrough, in the 2005-06 season, having been the first team to have conceded a Premiership goal following the League's inception. Manchester United are still the only club to have scored 1000 goals.
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